Soil Salinity is a major environmental issue in Australia, chiefly affecting agricultural lands in many areas of W.A. (Western Australia) Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. ... An environment is a complex of external factors that acts on a system and determines its course and form of existence. ...
Much of central Australia was at one time a shallow inland sea. This means that in the thin, dry soil there is a layer of saline soil. Prior to 1788, the bush forest above this soil ensured that the soil remained dry, and that the layer of saline soil did not rise. The advent of land clearing for grazing and farming, and the use of irrigation created a much wetter soil environment. Food and industrial crops, while requiring a much larger water usage, also required a much wetter soil environment. This wetness leached down into the saline layers of soil, and the crops then drew the water, and dissolved salts, towards the surface. 1788 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Irrigating cotton fields Irrigation in the Heart of the Sahara Irrigation (in agriculture) is the replacement or supplementation of rainfall with water from another source in order to grow crops. ...
Over time this process caused the thin top-soil layers to become irreversibly salty, and no longer suited for agriculture. Large amounts of land are now affected by salinity. Where the land is not yet a salt-pan it is occasionally possible for farmers to reduce the speed at which land becomes saline by planting gum trees, which reduce the general wetness of the soil. Varieties of the saltbush plant are also useful in these areas, and can help to support livestock. Soil salination results from the accumulation of free salts to such an extent that it leads to degradation of soils and vegetation. ... Species About 100-200 species, including: Atriplex alaskensis (Alaska Orach) Atriplex californica Atriplex calotheca Atriplex canescens Atriplex confertifolia Atriplex coronata (Crownscale Saltbush) Atriplex glabriuscula Atriplex hortensis (Garden or Red Orache) Atriplex halimus Atriplex heterosperma Atriplex hymenelytra Atriplex laciniata (Frosted Orache) Atriplex lentiformis Atriplex littoralis (Grass-leaved Orache) Atriplex longipes ( Orache...
The CSIRO and many other organisations are seeking ways to reduce the impact of salinity on Australian agriculture. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is the national government body for scientific research in Australia. ...
While Australia's central deserts are now seen as benign and are starting to yield fruit, salination is turning once productive farmland into lifeless dirt tracts and threatening the country's A$30 billion ($22 billion) agriculture export industry, one of the biggest in the world.
Most of Australia's 400,000 farmers and family members are still coming to grips with the fight against salinity, which is most widespread in agricultural areas between the vast outback deserts and the coast.
A growing love affair with Australia's deserts is pushing the CSIRO and others to develop a potentially lucrative native food industry, new medicines from desert plants, salt-tolerant wheat and genetically engineered tomatoes, as well as sustainable harvesting of kangaroos and native plants.
Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water.
Prior to 1978, salinity or halinity was expressed as ‰ usually based on the electrical conductivity ratio of the sample to "Copenhagen water", an artificial sea water manufactured to serve as a world "standard".
Salinity is an ecological factor of considerable importance, influencing the types of organisms that live in a body of water.
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