Find your Cropland Reference Ecological Unit
Search an address, drop a pin, or geolocate to resolve your MLRA × soil texture × PET-modulated precipitation bin and compare against measured reference sites. Contribute a reference site →
Or click anywhere on the map to drop a pin.
Contribute to the CREU dataset
Anyone collecting soil-health data — researchers, extension educators, conservation staff, producers — can add reference sites here. Submissions are reviewed by Soil Health Exchange staff before publication. The full dataset is downloadable as CSV or GeoJSON for use in your own GIS or analytics workflows.
How to use this map
- Find your location — type an address or ZIP in the search box, click anywhere on the map, or use Use my location.
- See your CREU — the side panel shows your compact CREU code (e.g.,
NE·67A·M·sa·p14) along with the MLRA, soil texture, mean annual precipitation, PET, and aridity index. - Compare to reference sites — every reference site in the same MLRA × texture group is listed, with measured soil-health values and citations to the source paper.
- Toggle the MLRA × aridity overlay to see how many distinct agroecological regions exist across the US and where yours sits.
What is a CREU?
A Cropland Reference Ecological Unit is a land area with presumably uniform pedogenetic and climatic properties, defined by MLRA × soil texture × PET-modulated precipitation bin. Within a CREU, soil-health differences between sites reflect management, not background heterogeneity. Ecological sites are listed alongside each CREU as context; they do not divide its boundaries.
Das, S., & Maharjan, B. (2022). Cropland Reference Ecological Unit: A land classification unit for comparative soil studies. Ecological Indicators 144: 109468. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109468
Why PET-modulated precipitation bins?
In an arid region (P/PET < 0.20), adding 2 inches of rain can transform biomass potential. In a humid region (P/PET > 0.65), the same 2 inches barely matters. This map uses bin widths of 1″ arid, 2″ semi-arid, 3″ sub-humid, 5″ humid — so comparisons happen between truly similar agroecologies.
Das, S., Hird, A., Maharjan, B., Stephenson, M., & Kariyawasam, L. (2024). Reference site selection based on state-and-transition models for soil health gap evaluation within cropland reference ecological units. Soil Security 16: 100142. doi:10.1016/j.soisec.2024.100142