Soils of the Southern Syria - A big database for the future land management planning

Safwan Mohammed; Hassan Habib; Haidar Ali; Sami AlHennaw; Samer Kiwan; Samar Ghanem; Karam Alsafadi; Eric C Brevik; Magboul M Sulieman; Endre Harsányi

doi:10.1016/j.dib.2020.105832

Soils of the Southern Syria - A big database for the future land management planning

Data Brief. 2020 Jun 11:31:105832. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2020.105832. eCollection 2020 Aug.

Authors

Safwan Mohammed¹, Hassan Habib², Haidar Ali³, Sami AlHennaw³, Samer Kiwan³, Samar Ghanem⁴, Karam Alsafadi⁵, Eric C Brevik^{6

7}, Magboul M Sulieman^{8

9}, Endre Harsányi¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Land Use, Technology and Regional Development, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management, University of Debrecen, Debrecen 4032, Hungary.
² Faculty of Agricultural, Department of Soil Science, Damascus University, Damascus, Syria.
³ Administration of Natural Resources Management, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research, Damascus, Syria.
⁴ Department of soil and water science, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Lattakia, Syria.
⁵ Department of Geography and GIS, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, Alexandria 25435, Egypt.
⁶ Department of Natural Sciences, Dickinson State University, Dickinson, ND, USA.
⁷ Department of Agriculture and Technical Studies, Dickinson State University, Dickinson, ND, USA.
⁸ Department of Soil and Environment Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum, Khartoum North, 13314 Shambat, Sudan.
⁹ Soil Sciences Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

As non-renewable natural resources, restoring Syrian soil quality is a vital issue for sustainable future planning after conflict ends. The data provided in this research exhibit features and physiochemical properties for soils from the southern part of Syria until the Jordanian border, which can provide decision-makers with sufficient information for rehabilitation stage after conflict in a regional scale. The data were collected from 107 representative soil profiles covering diverse agroecosystems throughout the area (i.e. Dara and Alswieda governorates). The most important data findings of this research included the first detection of Palygorskite {(Mg,Al)₂Si₄O₁₀(OH)•4(H₂O)} in Syrian soils, which is considered a strong evidence for the direct effects of the climate change on agroecosystem. Vertisols, Inceptisols, Entisols, Mollisols, and Aridisols were the most widespread soil types in the area. Overall, the database involves the field morphological characteristics, physicochemical, and mineralogical analyses.

Keywords: Palygorskite; Rehabilitation; Soil classification; Southern Syria.