Amelioration strategies for sodic soils: a review

Sodic soils are characterized by the occurrence of excess sodium (Na⁺) to levels that can adversely affect soil structure and disturb availability of some nutrients to plants. Such changes ultimately affect crop growth and yield. There are large areas of the world that exist under sodic soils and need attention for efficient, inexpensive and environmentally feasible amelioration. Sodic soil amelioration involves increase in calcium (Ca²⁺) on the cation exchange sites at the expense of Na⁺. The replaced Na⁺ together with excess soluble salts, if present, is removed from the root zone through infiltrating water as a result of excessive irrigations. Records nearly a century old reveal the use of water, crop, chemical amendment, electric current, and tillage as amelioration tools for such soils. Among the amelioration strategies, chemical amendments have an extensive usage. Owing to gradual increases in amendment cost in some parts of the world during the last two decades, this amelioration strategy has become cost‐intensive, particularly for the subsistence farmers in developing countries. In the meantime, phytoremediation with low initial investment has emerged as a potential substitute of chemical amelioration. Phytoremediation works through plant root action that helps dissolve native soil calcite (CaCO₃) of low solubility to supply adequate levels of Ca²⁺ for an effective Na⁺−Ca²⁺ exchange without the application of an amendment. Although significant progress has been achieved in improving amelioration methods, a great deal of work remains to analyse the economics of such methods with focus on (1) the long‐term sustainability of the amelioration projects and (2) the consequences of amelioration for the farmer himself, other growers and society as a whole. Computer modelling may help assess economic viability of different soil amelioration methods to extend results broadly to other similar locations. In addition, computer modelling to stimulate movement and reactions of salts in sodic soils has been a potentially useful complement to experimental data. However, such models need evaluation under field conditions. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Amelioration strategies for saline soils: a review

Soil salinization is one of the major causes of declining agricultural productivity in many arid and semiarid regions of the world. Excessive salt concentrations in soils, in most cases, cannot be reduced with time by routine irrigation and crop management practices. Such situations demand soil amelioration. Various means used to ameliorate saline soils include: (a) movement of excess soluble salts from upper to lower soil depths via leaching, which may be accomplished by continuous ponding, intermittent ponding, or sprinkling; (b) surface flushing of salts from soils that contain salt crusts at the surface, a shallow watertable, or a highly impermeable profile; (c) biological reduction of salts by harvest of high‐salt accumulating aerial plant parts, in areas with negligible irrigation water or rainfall available for leaching; and (d) amelioration of saline soils under cropping and leaching. Among these methods, cropping in conjunction with leaching has been found as the most successful and sustainable way to ameliorate saline soils. Cropping during leaching or between leachings causes an increase in salt‐leaching efficiency because a decrease in soil water content occurs under unsaturated water flow conditions with a concurrent decrease in large pore bypass and drainage volume. Consequently, anaerobic conditions in soil may occur during leaching that can affect crop growth. Thus, in addition to the existing salt‐tolerant crop genotypes, research is needed to seek out or develop genotypes with increased tolerances to salinity and hypoxia. Since salt leaching is interacted by many factors, evaluation of the traditional concepts such as the leaching requirement (LR), the leaching fraction (LF) and the salt balance index (SBI) demands incorporation of a rapid, efficient and economical way of monitoring changes in soil salinity during amelioration. Besides this, numerous models that have been developed for simulating movement and reactions of salts in soils need evaluation under actual field conditions. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.