Legacy data About Soils of Lérida Province, NE Spain

This paper facilitates access to a set of legacy soil data that will help characterize the cultural landscape and land qualities to assess soil functions, such as agricultural production, in a context of growing environmental concerns needing stewardship. We examine and summarize the data from a soil survey conducted between December 1980 and August 1981. The field soil descriptions employed quantitative and qualitative criteria that were subsequently officially codified in Spain, while the methods for chemical and physical analyses were the ones endorsed by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture. The presented information portrays the nature and the state of the soils in 1981, allowing: (i) comparisons with current and future soil conditions after the intensive agriculture introduced in past years, and (ii) evaluations of land management carried out since then. The number of soil profiles studied was 91, with 303 soil horizons distinguished, and a total of 2214 physical and chemical analyses. The interpretation and use of these results can be done, with their own approaches, by local farmers, agronomists, soil scientists, geologists, and other people interested in the environment.