An ecological overview of halophytes from Pakistan

Abstract

In recent years there has been increasing recognition that the scarcity of fresh water and the salinification of agricultural areas are becoming much more global problems. Both trends represent a threat to the world’s food supply. Currently the domestic, industrial and agricultural use of fresh and ground water is increasing so quickly that fresh water shortage can be expected all over the world. This is already the case in several different places. Surface and ground water in agricultural areas in many places in the world are rapidly becoming increasingly brackish and saline, particularly in arid tropical and subtropical areas. Furthermore, salt deserts (caused by a lack of fresh water) and saline inland basins (caused by the level of saline ground water rising as a result of leakage of drainage water) are being created. FAO data show that at least 40% of the world is affected by salinification in some form [10]. The actual impact of this estimate in not entirely clear. However, it is known that large areas in Australia, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Central Asia, South America, Mexico and the United States [34] are faced with salinification to greater or lesser extent.KeywordsSalt MarshPerennial GrassHerbaceous PerennialNorthern MountainPongamia PinnataThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.