Use of Spatial Embeddings in Genosoil Identification

Abstract. Genosoils are minimally disturbed reference states within pedogenons, that is, soil units shaped by similar pedogenic processes within the Soil Security framework. They are central to assessing human impacts on soil functions, services, and resistance to threats. At present, genosoil delineation relies on the Human Modification Index (HMI), yet in intensively managed landscapes HMI thresholds may exclude all local pixels, leaving no local reference state available. Because the same pedogenon may occur across geographically distant regions, non-local occurrences may provide an alternative source of reference information. Using the United Kingdom as a case study, we tested whether satellite-derived spatial embeddings can detect genosoil signatures at 10 m resolution and whether these signatures can be transferred to regions with limited or absent local low-human-modification examples. We evaluated two satellite foundation-model embedding products, AlphaEarth and Tessera, across three contrasting pedogenons selected from the Global Pedogenon Map. Within each pedogenon, pixels with lower HMI values were generally more similar to the genosoil reference, indicating that the embeddings capture a reproducible low-modification surface-state signal. At the global scale, similarity to the UK genosoil was largely confined to biogeographically coherent regions. Cross-border substitution of local UK genosoil delineation was mostly limited, with meaningful partial recovery observed primarily in the highly modified agricultural pedogenon. These results indicate that satellite foundation-model embeddings can support higher-resolution genosoil delineation than is currently possible from global human modification products alone, extending the operational framework from 90 m to 10 m. They also suggest a pathway towards future genosoil identification frameworks that rely less on coarse disturbance proxies and more on validated surface-state similarity.