Mining global soil carbon datasets: can modern machine learning uncover the missing pieces of process-based models?
Abstract The future of terrestrial soil carbon stocks plays a crucial role in climate change prediction. Modern machine learning techniques are now widely applied in soil science to predict the spatial distribution of soil properties from observational data. Beyond prediction, the use of machine learning as a data-mining tool offers a promising pathway for improving soil carbon modelling and refining projections of climate–carbon feedbacks. In this paper, we review recent advances in the application of machine learning to global soil carbon modelling as a data-mining tool and highlight its potential to drive an iterative feedback loop that improves the representation of soil carbon dynamics in Earth System Models.
Authors
- Shoji Hashimoto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3022-7495)
- Akihiro Imaya
- Taiki Mori (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1552-892X)
- Boris Ťupek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3466-0237)
- Naoyuki Yamashita (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3398-6825)
- Jumpei Toriyama (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8061-6398)
- Aleksi Lehtonen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1388-0388)
- Bertrand Guenet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4311-8645)
- Elisa Bruni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8074-0516)
- Akihiko Ito (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5265-0791)
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR)
- École Normale Supérieure - PSL (FR)
- Natural Resources Institute Finland (FI)
- Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (JP)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Environmental Research Letters
- Published
- 2025-09-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adfe83
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Soil Geostatistics and Mapping
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.80
Funders
- Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area
- HORIZON EUROPE European Innovation Council