POSSIBILITIES TO IDENTIFY ORGANIC SOILS IN THE AGRICULTURAL AREA IN LATVIA

Organic soils are the soils being rich in organic matter; they comprise part of the utilised agricultural area (UAA) and are a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture in Latvia. In Latvia, annual precipitation is greater than evaporation, which creates favourable conditions for the formation of soils rich in organic matter. Therefore, the overall aim of the present research is to examine possibilities to identify organic soils in the agricultural area in Latvia. To achieve the aim, the following specific research tasks are defined: 1) to analyse the agricultural land area in Latvia; 2) to describe the possibilities to identify organic soils in the agricultural area in Latvia and to examine the organic soil area in Latvia. The research found that the UAA, according to various information sources, was different, which made the identification of the organic soil area problematic. Information on soils in Latvia is not collected according to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) standards and definitions, therefore the present research classified organic soils according to the latest list of soils in Latvia and IPCC criteria. An analysis of the soil map of Latvia and the available data of the Rural Support Service's Geographic Information System showed that the organic soil area in Latvia was in the range from 148 069 ha to 345 844 ha.