[en] Investigations to give prerequisites for long-term storage of nuclear waste are made by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB AB). Ecosystem functions are crucial in this management. The range of the scope is wide including bedrock, regolith, hydrosphere and biosphere. The interface between deep geological formations and surface systems is then considered very important. This would be the top of the regolith, where soils are developed. Special attention has been paid to these layers with fairly comprehensive investigations. Field investigations were made for one of the candidate areas, the Forsmark area, in 2002 by the Department of Forest Soils, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. In these ecosystem functions, the upper part of the regolith is one crucial component and the focus in the investigations was on the upper metre of the soil. Variables determined include vegetation, hydrology, soil parent material, textural composition, soil type and physical and chemical properties of relevant soil layers. Methods used in the investigation coincide with those of the Swedish Forest Soil Inventory, which provide possibilities to compare properties in the Forsmark area with those of total Sweden and regions of the country. Soil properties were determined thoroughly on eight site types in two replicates to provide statistical significance. However, this meant that the investigation did not have a total spatial coverage. Instead, the spatial distribution of soils in the area was determined from a GIS based on the inventory made and information on vegetation types, distribution of Quaternary deposits and a hydrological index. From this GIS, distributions were compared with other parts of the country. The geographical location of the Forsmark area (N 60 deg 22 min; E 18 deg 13 min) is on the northeast coast of central Sweden bordering to the Bothnian Sea. The area is low-lying, reaching only up to 15 m above the sea, which means that the soils are young and therefore fairly undeveloped. Climate is characterised by an annual precipitation of c 700 mm, mean annual temperature of c +5 deg C and a semi-arid condition during the vegetation period. Determinations on sites include a site survey over the 30 m x 30 m plots and eight soil profile investigations on each plot. Properties determined were ground vegetation, site hydrology, drainage and stoniness together with profile conditions such as horizons, parent material, texture, humus form, soil type and peat humification degree. Added to this was soil sampling from top soil layers (0-20 cm) and of the parent material on 0.6 m depth. Soil samples were analysed on pH, total C and N. The investigation resulted in the overall impression that the Forsmark area exhibit similarities concerning land types with large parts of Sweden, with a dominating forest type and soil parent material not differing to any major extent. But, the young soils has resulted in more or less immature soil types, to a large extent being Regosols but also six other classes occurred. The considerable influence of calcareous soil material furnishes nutrient rich conditions that in these fairly summer-warm conditions provide a rich and diversified flora. In the Forsmark area the soils are young, mainly less than 1500 years. Till soils dominate. The impacts of sea waves have redistributed the material and left coarse water washed tills in large parts with in low-lying areas sorted sediments and in higher locations thin soils and bare bedrock. Site hydrology variations on investigated plots ranged mainly over fresh to wet types while the class dry mainly occurred on local small hills, where also the bedrock outcrops existed. Sea bays have been cut off and now form inland lakes partly being in transgression to swamps and peatlands. Typical soils for Sweden would be Podzols but these are poorly developed in the Forsmark area and only a few locations were identified. Instead immature soils such as Regosols and soils influenced by water, such as Gleysols and Histosols, occur frequently. The fairly rich nutrient conditions together with climate and hydrology provided properties for mull and moder humus forms to develop, being more frequent as compared to most other parts of Sweden. Also the O horizon pH was in general high with values around six while Sweden on average show values between four and five. The humus layer are influenced by the underlying mineral soil and pH values there reached 6.5 on average to be compared with values around 5 for most of Sweden. Carbon concentrations in the humus layer agree with Swedish ordinary conditions but in the mineral soil the influence of CaCO₃ makes the concentration higher as compared to the general values for Sweden. There exist also increasing concentrations with depth, which mainly would be attributed to the CaCO₃ content, and deviating from ordinary forest soil conditions. Nitrogen concentrations in the soil agree fairly well with most parts of Sweden. However, the values are lower than the region IV and Uppsala county to which regions the Forsmark area belongs