Abstract
Abstract Cotton is a main cash crop in the Yellow River Delta in China. Although cotton is known for its high salt tolerance, cotton yield is severely affected by excessive salt accumulation in soil. A large amount of the Yellow River water is introduced annually to leach surface salts; however, it has limited effects due to poor soil physical quality. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of soil salinity on cotton growth and the viability of Amaranthaceae halophytes as alternative crops. Cotton and Amaranthaceae plants, including Suaeda salsa, Kochia scoparia , swiss chard, table beets and spinach, were planted in a large field in the Yellow River Delta that had spatial differentiation in terms of soil electrical conductivity (EC). Our analysis on soil revealed that Na+ was the major cause of high EC; however, soil alkalization was not observed in highly salinized areas. Cotton biomass showed a strong negative correlation with soil EC. Although all tested Amaranthaceae plants also decreased biomass in high EC areas, this effect was clearly less pronounced in S. salsa and K. scoparia . To our surprise, levels of major (K + , Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ ) or minor (Fe 2+ , Mn 2+ , Zn 2+ and Cu 2+ ) essential elements were not significantly affected by soil EC in all plant species, suggesting that ion imbalance was not the main factor of growth reduction. All Amaranthaceae halophytes absorbed more Na + but less Ca 2+ than cotton, thus it would be possible that Amaranthaceae plants function better than cotton in terms of maintaining soil quality.
Highlights
Salinity and sodicity are the major agricultural problems that lead to severe economic loss
We found a strong negative correlation between cotton dry weight and soil electrical conductivity (EC) measured with a WET sensor on May 12th, suggesting that cotton growth in July can be predicted by simple soil EC measurements in May
The experimental field had a wide range of salinity levels and could be used to test the effects of different salinity levels on plant growth (Fig. 3)
Summary
Salinity and sodicity are the major agricultural problems that lead to severe economic loss. Excessive Na+ accumulation in soils is harmful for non-salt tolerant glycophytes since it creates an abnormal plant physiology such as ion imbalance and osmotic shock and diminishes the physical and chemical quality of soils (Bernstein 1975; Bohnert et al 1995; Munns 2002; Dodd et al 2009). In arid and semiarid zones, the shortage of good quality water is the bottleneck for this approach (Rabhi et al.2010). Chemical amendments such as gypsum are effective at reducing the soil Na+:Ca2+ ratio and improving soil quality, the increasing price of these amendments has made such treatment problematic, especially in some developing countries (Qadir et al.2002; Rabhi et al 2009; Rabhi et al 2010). Phytoremediation is relatively easy, cheap and environmentally friendly, and positive impacts of salt uptake of halophytic plants on soil quality have been reported (Rabhi et al 2009; Rabhi et al 2010)
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