malak-saboh
General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research
Faculty of Agriculture,Damascus University
2011

Abstract

Location: Alotaibah lake which is mouth of Barada river (71 Km) at the east of Damascus city and faraway about (30 Km) from the city .
The swamp of Alotaibah lake taking an elliptical type in the direction of north west-south east.
The lake extend up to 5 Km on length direction and up to 2-3 Km on width one.
The soil around the lake is dark brown and saturated, and becomes salty swampy inside the lake with a little fertility.
The climate of the lake is dry to very dry and it was come under the drought for the first time in the year 1955, then filled in 1969, and it was dried after that, this was repeated in 1984 ,the year 1992 was the last time the lake filled by pure water.
The study has been divided into three directions:
– First direction : Climatic study, by practicing (Ambergeh Equation) we found that the site exists in the very dry zone.
-Second direction : Studying Tamarix (member of Tamaricaceae family).
There was two kinds of the Tamarix: Tamarix tetragyna and Tamarix mannifera.
-Third direction: Soil study, by making (11) soil sections in various points, with a different density of Tamarix . and studying physical and chemical properties of the soil, and the humidity of plant and soil at three depths ( 30-60-100) cm, and studying the relation between them during the four seasons in months ( November-February-April and August).
It was perceived that lake soils are sedimentary soils exist on a calcareous soils, clayey to a limy, light brown to a yellow brown, has a limy clayey to a limy consistency, with a small to medium polygon internal physique.
while its chemical properties, the soil is basic , and salty to a medium salty.
It was explored that the soil properties had No effects on the Tamarix growth at the different sites, because of the similar results that we got from the studied sites, and the bigger cause of the varying density of Tamarix was the humidity which was in a very high level at the northern lands where the handled sewerage water there coming from Adra station. The relation between the humidity of the soil(to depth 100 cm) and humidity of plant was very weak, which indicates that Tamarix has  deep roots.