Effects of Soil Amendments on Coastal Saline-Alkali Soil Improvement and the Growth of Plants

Abstract

Soil salinization is one of the major land degradation types and has greatly influenced sustainable agricultural development. Interest is growing in the use of soil amendments to reclaim saline and sodic soils. According to the practical soil conditions in the Yellow River Delta and the special characteristics of the coastal saline soil, in order to find the effects of combined applications of desulfurization gypsum, humic acid and polyacrylamide on saline-alkali soil, pot experiment was conducted to analyze the chemical properties and plant yields. L8(27) design was selected to engage in orthogonal experiment with first class interaction of three factors at two levels. The results demonstrated that applying soil amendments significantly increase the total salt content, decreased the soil pH and SAR. The effect on treatment 8(30g/kg desulfurization gypsum , 2g/ kg of humic acid , 0.025g/kg PAM) was the most significant, cotton soil pH and SAR decreased to 7.63 and 7.22, corn soil pH and SAR decreased to 7.57 and 7.34. The effects of soil amendments on crop growth showed that the treatment 7, combination of soil amendments (30g/kg desulfurization gypsum ,2g/ kg of humic acid , 0.01g/kg PAM) could promote the growth of cotton most significantly. Compared with the control, plant height, leaf area fresh weight and dry weight increased 33.4%,41.7%,82.2% and 237.8% respectively. The combination 8 of soil amendments (30g/kg FGD gypsum, 2g/ kg of humic acid ,0.025g/kg PAM) could promote the growth of corn most significantly. Compared with the control, plant height, leaf area fresh weight and dry weight increased 20.7%, 35.9%, 49.9%和47.9% respectively. There was no significant interaction between the three soil amendments.