Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

147 Chapter 6: Soil Figure 6.5  Brown earth soil type Source: Teagasc Irish Soil Information System Ireland’s Soil Information System classifies soils using a hierarchical grouping. Figure 6.6 shows Ireland’s great soil groups. Well- and moderately drained soils (podzolics, brown earths, podzols and rendzinas) make up 55% of Ireland’s soils. Poorly drained mineral soils (gleys) make up 24.5% and organic soils (peats and lithosols) make up 18%. Urban areas and water make up the rest of Ireland’s soil area but are not included in Figure 6.6. A review of Irish soil research and data from 2013 to 2021 identified major gaps in our knowledge of Ireland’s soils (McNamara et al. , 2022). It found that current research was biased towards the collection of data on soil pH and nitrogen content and that agricultural soils were studied more than urban or contaminated soils. It concluded that soil knowledge in Ireland is not well aligned to EU or national priorities. Irish soils and the proposed EU soil monitoring law Annex 1 of the proposed EU soil monitoring law (EC, 2023b) sets out soil health descriptors and criteria for healthy soil condition under specified aspects of soil degradation (summarised in Table 6.2). Figure 6.6  Ireland’s soil groups, graphed by total area WELL-DRAINED SOILS POORLY DRAINED MINERAL SOILS ORGANIC SOILS Luvisols 19.3% Brown Podzolics 11.5% Podzols 7% Rendzines 4% Blanket Peats 10.5% Lithosols 2.9% Basin Peats 4.9% Gleys 24.5% Brown Earth 13.3% Source: Adapted from Teagasc, 2020a