Identifying and managing risk factors for salt-affected soils: a case study in a semi-arid region in China

Abstract

Soil salinization and desalinization are complex processes caused by natural conditions and human-induced risk factors. Conventional salinity risk identification and management methods have limitations in spatial data analysis and often provide an inadequate description of the problem. The objectives of this study were to identify controllable risk factors, to provide response measures, and to design management strategies for salt-affected soils. We proposed to integrate spatial autoregressive (SAR) model, multi-attribute decision making (MADM), and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for these purposes. Our proposed method was demonstrated through a case study of managing soil salinization in a semi-arid region in China. The results clearly indicated that the SAR model is superior to the OLS model in terms of risk factor identification. These factors include groundwater salinity, paddy area, corn area, aquaculture (i.e., ponds and lakes) area, distance to drainage ditches and irrigation channels, organic fertilizer input, and cropping index, among which the factors related to human land use activities are dominant risk factors that drive the soil salinization processes. We also showed that ecological irrigation and sustainable land use are acceptable strategies for soil salinity management.

2,4-D attenuates salinity-induced toxicity by mediating anatomical changes, antioxidant capacity and cation transporters in the roots of rice cultivars

“…Among cereals, rice ( O. sativa ) is also considered to be the most salt-sensitive crop. Therefore investigating different strategies to make rice plants more tolerant and to improve its productivity under salinity is an important challenge for researchers to cope with reduced food production due to soil salinization 3 , 4 , 31 . However, the question about a how recommended dose of 2,4-D regulates salt tolerance in the rice plants is still left to be resolved.…”

Quantitative Evaluation and Uncertainty Assessment on Geostatistical Simulation of Soil Salinity Using Electromagnetic Induction Technique

“…Soil salinity is not only the most serious environmental issue, but also the most frequently cited soil and agricultural utilization problem for farmers in the arid or semi-arid regions, especially the newly-reclaimed desertification lands in China [1]. Salinization of irrigated lands is a common phenomenon wherever irrigation is practiced under arid or semi-arid conditions.…”