This data set provides estimates of different forms of naturally occurring soil phosphorus (P) including labile inorganic P, organic P, occluded P, secondary mineral P, apatite P, and total P on a global scale at 0.5-degree resolution.

The data were assembled from chronosequence information and global spatial databases to develop a map of total soil P and the distribution among mineral bound, labile, organic, occluded, and secondary P forms in soils. Uncertainty was calculated for the different forms. The data set has no explicit temporal component -- data were nominally for the pre-industrial period ca. 1850.

The estimated global spatial variation and distribution of different soil P forms presented in this study will be useful for global biogeochemistry models that include P as a limiting element in biological production by providing initial estimates of the available soil P for plant uptake and microbial utilization (Yang et al., 2013).

There is one netCDF data file (.nc) with this data set.