Abstract
Soil salinization is a critical barrier to sustainable agriculture and ecological stability in arid and semi-arid regions. The Tailan River Irrigation District in southern Xinjiang is severely affected by salinization, with a two-decade absence of comprehensive soil salinity survey data hampering effective saline-alkali land management. This study established 164 sampling points in the district via equal-interval zoned sampling in ArcGIS, collecting 0–120 cm topsoil samples at seven depths on April 20–21, 2024 in accordance with NY/T 395–2012. Soil samples were pretreated for EC measurement (1:5 soil/water ratio), and physico-chemical properties, including pH, electrical conductivity (EC), moisture content (MC), total soluble salt content (TSS) and eight salt ion content, were analyzed per national agricultural and environmental standards. After rigorous screening, 118 valid sampling points and 807 soil data records were used to construct a comprehensive dataset that clarifies the spatial distribution of soil salinity, moisture and EC in the district, providing a vital foundation for saline-alkali land improvement, crop layout optimization and the formulation of relevant agricultural policies.
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Data availability
The dataset is freely available through Figshare’s public link at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3008445425.
Code availability
No custom code was used in this study.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by several funding programs, including the Major Science and Technology Special Project of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (2023A02002-2), the University Basic Research Fund Research Projects of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XJEDU2024J044). “Tianchi Talent” Introduction Program Project of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region; High-Level Talent Research Cultivation Project of Xinjiang Agricultural University. Thanks to the workers responsible for collecting and testing various data. The list is as follows: Jianxin He, Liang Liu, Haihua Yang, Wu Yang, Jingwei Gong, Jianxin Wang, Yiyi Wang, Jiajun Li, Hanbing Yang, Hao Li, Jingdong Shen, Tao Zeng, Zeshi Ren, Youjian Song, Heyuan Chen, Yanan Wang, Lüshan Deng, Guoyue Li, Shuhan Ma, Wenhao Zhang, Rui He, Tong Zhu, Zhong Lü, Yu Xia, Yanbing Li, Deyou Pan, Ping’an Tang, Hesheng Cheng, Ao Shen, Jicheng Sun, Yafei Ren, Xiaojuan Huang.
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Qianxi Zhang: sample collection, laboratory experiments, data collation, statistical data analysis, and writing-original draft preparation. Miaomiao Gong: sample collection, guidance on laboratory experiments, assistance in data collation, and data calibration. Wei Luo: sample collection, assistance in laboratory experiments and data collation. Jingtong He: sample collection, assistance in laboratory experiments and data collation. Pingan Jiang: technical giudance,project administration. Jinhua Ding: sample collection, data quality control, technical guidance, project administration and writing-review.
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Zhang, Q., Gong, M., Luo, W. et al. A dataset on topsoil salinization characteristics in the Tailan River Irrigation District on the northern margin of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang. Sci Data (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06977-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06977-y
