UKCEH Soil Bank

Purpose

The purpose of the UKCEH Soil Bank is to preserve and store soil samples from nationally important surveys and experiments, which can then be used for further analysis and research.  It contains soils from across England, Scotland and Wales, including samples from key global studies, with the majority of samples linked to an array of existing soil, vegetation, habitat and climate data.

Capabilities

The Soil Bank houses air-dried and frozen soil samples, and is equipped with: extensive roller-racking shelving for air-dried soil samples (currently ~8000 samples); two walk-in freezer rooms, one with roller-racking, both maintained at -20 degrees (currently ~7000 frozen cores). This is coupled with laboratory facilities for processing and analyses. 

Lifecycle

The Soil Bank holds samples from large-scale surveys going back to 1970s, and continues to accumulate soil samples from large-scale, long-term survey and monitoring programmes such as UKCEH Countryside Survey, Welsh Countryside Monitoring (GMEP/ERAMMP) and British Woodland Survey.  It was named the UKCEH Soil Bank in 2020 alongside major reorganisation and upgrade of archive capacity.

Uniqueness

The UKCEH Soil Bank provides the only archive of frozen soils systematically sampled across Great Britain, and going back to the 1970s.

Partners

The UKCEH Soil Bank takes samples from other research infrastructures and surveys (and their partners) listed in this Catalogue, particularly the Environmental Change Network (ECN).  Discussions are underway with Lancaster University to significantly expand the Soil Bank's capacity.

Location(s)

The Soil Bank is located at UKCEH Lancaster.

User(s)

Soil Bank users include UKCEH scientists and other researchers interested in soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (including impacts of climate change, pollution, etc).

Access

Data for Soil Bank samples, including associated environmental data, are available via the UKCEH Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC).  Physical soil sub-samples may be accessed on request, via a Sample Access Request form and panel approval.  An online Soil Bank explorer tool is in development: contact Aidan Keith, UKCEH Lancaster.

Funding Sources

The Soil Bank is funded by NERC National Capability LTSS: UK-SCaPE programme plus UKCEH science-area funding.