The National Soils Archive of Scotland is held at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen and consists of the following.
- Systematic Soil Survey of Scotland samples
- National Soil Inventory of Scotland (NSIS) 1978-87 and NSIS 2 (2007-10)
- Long term experiments
- New samples that are continually being added
- A soil DNA archive
There are:
- 4.8 metric tonnes of soil samples on 2.4km of shelving
- more than 43,000 air-dried soil samples collected from 13,000 locations
- soil samples collected from 1934 to the present day.
The samples stored in the National Soils Archive are a reference to the state of the soils in the past. They are used to test new analyses and to monitor changes in soil over time.
It is important to avoid contamination or changes in conditions during storage so the samples are kept air-dried, cool and dark in either glass or plastic containers. Soil DNA is stored at minus 80°C in special freezers.
Sample locations can be found by following this link:
