Delineating Genosoils and Phenosoils in Europe Using the Global Pedogenon Map

ABSTRACT This study is a proof‐of‐concept for a practical implementation of the global pedogenon map (GPM) in Europe. A pedogenon is a concept that classifies soil based on similar soil‐forming factors at a given reference time rather than on soil properties. Pedogenon classes can potentially be further divided into genosoils and phenosoils, where genosoils represent soils with minimal disturbance and phenosoils reflect soils with greater disturbance due to anthropogenic pressure. This study evaluates two approaches for delineating genosoils and phenosoils across 38 European countries, using the GPM: (1) combining CORINE land cover data with a Human Modification Index (HMI) layer at a 0.2 threshold, and (2) selecting the 5% least disturbed area per pedogenon across the analysed European countries. Soil organic carbon (SOC) values from the LUCAS soil spectral library were used to assess genosoil stability. Results show that while the CORINE+HMI method delineated larger undisturbed areas, using the HMI with 5% least disturbed per pedogenon produced a more spatially balanced genosoil distribution. This second method was a more efficient strategy, as it also showed considerably lower SOC standard deviations in the genosoils, indicating that it identified more stable reference states for monitoring soil capacity and condition in Europe. By accounting for Europe's rich pedodiversity, the GPM provides a consistent basis for detecting changes over time and supports informed land and environmental management.