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
Affiliations
Safwan Mohammed
Institute of Land Use, Technology and Regional Development, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management, University of Debrecen, Debrecen 4032, Hungary; Corresponding author.
Hassan Habib
Faculty of Agricultural, Department of Soil Science, Damascus University, Damascus, Syria
Haidar Ali
Administration of Natural Resources Management, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research, Damascus, Syria
Sami AlHennaw
Administration of Natural Resources Management, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research, Damascus, Syria
Samer Kiwan
Administration of Natural Resources Management, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research, Damascus, Syria
Samar Ghanem
Department of soil and water science, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Lattakia, Syria
Karam Alsafadi
Department of Geography and GIS, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, Alexandria 25435, Egypt
Eric C. Brevik
Department of Natural Sciences, Dickinson State University, Dickinson, ND, USA; Department of Agriculture and Technical Studies, Dickinson State University, Dickinson, ND, USA
Magboul M. Sulieman
Department of Soil and Environment Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum, Khartoum North, 13314 Shambat, Sudan; Soil Sciences Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Endre Harsányi
Institute of Land Use, Technology and Regional Development, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management, University of Debrecen, Debrecen 4032, Hungary
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.
