Register      Login
Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
Shopping Cart: ( empty )
You are here: Home > Journals > FP > FP09249 > Fulltext
RESEARCH FRONT
Contents Vol 37(7)

Soil processes affecting crop production in salt-affected soils

Pichu Rengasamy
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Prescott Building, Waite Campus, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, 5005 SA, Australia. Email: pichu.rengasamy@adelaide.edu.au

Functional Plant Biology 37(7) 613-620 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP09249
Submitted: 14 October 2009  Accepted: 7 May 2010   Published: 2 July 2010

Abstract

Salts can be deposited in the soil from wind and rain, as well as through the weathering of rocks. These processes, combined with the influence of climatic and landscape features and the effects of human activities, determine where salt accumulates in the landscape. When the accumulated salt in soil layers is above a level that adversely affects crop production, choosing salt-tolerant crops and managing soil salinity are important strategies to boost agricultural economy. Worldwide, more than 800 million hectares of soils are salt-affected, with a range of soils defined as saline, acidic–saline, alkaline–saline, acidic saline–sodic, saline–sodic, alkaline saline–sodic, sodic, acidic–sodic and alkaline–sodic. The types of salinity based on soil and groundwater processes are groundwater-associated salinity (dryland salinity), transient salinity (dry saline land) and irrigation salinity. This short review deals with the soil processes in the field that determine the interactions between root-zone environments and plant responses to increased osmotic pressure or specific ion concentrations. Soil water dynamics, soil structural stability, solubility of compounds in relation to pH and pE and nutrient and water movement all play vital roles in the selection and development of plants tolerant to salinity.

Additional keywords: dynamics of soil salinity, salinity categories, salinity types.


Acknowledgements

The author thanks the Grain Research and Development Corporation of Australia for the financial support to him since 1994 for several projects on saline and sodic soils, the results of which are reported in this paper and Ms Alla Marchuk for technical assistance during this period.


References


Cooper DS (2004) Genetics and agronomy of transient salinity in Triticum durum and T.aestivum. PhD Thesis, The University of Adelaide, Australia.

Cramer GR (1992) Kinetics of maize leaf elongation. II. Responses of a Na-excluding cultivar and a Na-including cultivar to varying Na/Ca salinities. Journal of Experimental Botany 43, 857–864.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | [Verified 24 May 2010]

Elgharably A, Marschner P, Rengasamy P (2010) Wheat growth in a saline sandy loam soil as affected by N form and application rate. Plant and Soil 328, 303–312.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | [Verified 24 May 2010]

Ghassemi F , Jakeman AJ , Nix HA (1995) ‘Salinisation of land and water resources: human causes, extent, management and case studies.’ (UNSW Press: Sydney)

Irshad M, Honna T, Eneji AE, Yamamoto S (2002) Wheat response to nitrogen source under saline conditions. Journal of Plant Nutrition 25, 2603–2612.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | [Verified 24 May 2010]

Maas EV (1986) Salt tolerance of plants. Applied Agricultural Research 1, 12–25. open url image1

Munns R, Tester M (2008) Mechanisms of salinity tolerance. Annual Review of Plant Biology 59, 651–681.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Munns R, James RA, Lauchli A (2006) Approaches to increasing the salt tolerance of wheat and other cereals. Journal of Experimental Botany 57, 1025–1043.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

National Land and Water Resources Audit (2001) ‘Australian dryland salinity assessment 2000.’(NLWRA, Commonwealth of Australia: Canberra)

Northcote KH , Skene JKM (1972) ‘Australian soils with saline and sodic properties. Soil Publication 27.’ (CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne)

Passioura J (2004) Water use efficiency in the farmers’ field. In ‘Water use efficiency in plant biology’. (Ed. MA Bacon) pp. 302–321. (Blackwell Publishing: Oxford, UK)

Rengasamy P (2002a) Transient salinity and subsoil constraints to dryland farming in Australian sodic soils: an overview. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 42, 351–361.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Rengasamy P (2002 b) Clay dispersion. In ‘Soil physical measurement and interpretation for land evaluation’. (Eds N McKenzie, K Goughlan, H Cresswell) pp. 200–210. (CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne)

Rengasamy P (2006) World salinization with emphasis on Australia. Journal of Experimental Botany 57, 1017–1023.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Rengasamy P (2010) Osmotic and ionic effects of various electrolytes on the growth of wheat. Australian Journal of Soil Research 48, 120–124.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | open url image1

Rengasamy P, Olsson KA (1991) Sodicity and soil structure. Australian Journal of Soil Research 29, 935–952.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | open url image1

Rengasamy P, Chittleborough D, Helyar K (2003) Root-zone constraints and plant-based solutions for dryland salinity. Plant and Soil 257, 249–260.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | open url image1

Setter TL , Waters I , Khabaz-Saberi H , McDonald G , Biddulph B (2004) Screening for water logging tolerance of crop plants. In ‘8th Conference of the International Society for Plant Anaerobiosis, 20–24 September 2004’. pp. 20–24. (International Society for Plant Anaerobiosis: Perth, WA)

Smiles DE, Smith CJ (2004) A survey of the cation content of piggery effluents and some consequences of their use to irrigate soils. Australian Journal of Soil Research 42, 231–246.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Sposito G (1989) ‘The chemistry of soils.’ (Oxford University Press: New York)

Tavakkoli E, Rengasamy P, McDonald GK (2010) The response of barley to salinity stress differs between hydroponics and soil systems. Functional Plant Biology 37, 621–633.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1