Abstract
Soil salinity is increasing overtime in agricultural soils as well as in natural ecosystems particularly in arid and semi-arid regions due to low rainfall and high temperature. In this study, eighteen sites in Punjab from the Cholistan to Thal deserts, and Potohar Platues were selected to investigate the effect of soil salinity with increasing soil depths on soil physicochemical properties and nutrient availability. Soil texture of these soils varied from loamy sand and sandy loam of saline hyper-arid habitats to clay loam of saline semi-arid habitats. Soil saturation percentage, moisture contents, and soil organic matter generally decreased with increasing soil depth. Topsoil ECe ranged from 58 dS m-1 in Kallar Kahar (KKr) to 31 dS m-1 in Noorpur Thal (NpT) habitat while for deep soil (25 cm depth), ECe ranged from 50 dS m-1 in KKr to 21 dS m-1 of Khanewall (Knw) habitat. Soil Na+ and Mg2+ contents increased with increasing ECe levels of different habitats but K+ decreased in most of the cases. Soil Ca2+ decreased both with increasing soil salinity as well as with soil depths except for moderately dry Chak # 87A-Feroza (87A), Chak # 70-Feroza (H70), and Hasilpur (HsP) habitats. Most of the salinity causing cations i.e. Na+ , Ca2+ , and Mg2+ were concentrated in topsoil thereby causing higher ECe levels in surface soils. In comparison, NO3 - , PO4 3- and NH3 generally reduced with increasing depth and by increasing intensity of salinity. It was concluded that soil salinity severally distorted soil physical properties and affected nutrient distribution particularly those of anions in different soil horizons that explains the growth restrictions imposed by high soil salinities on native vegetation of hyper saline arid regions.
Ali Kamal, Muhammad Sajid Aqeel Ahmad, Ambreen Khadija Alvi, Mansoor Hameed, Farooq Ahmad, Khizra Ghaffar. (2021) Soil salinity differentially influences soil physicochemical properties and nutrient availability in rhizospheric soils of grasses growing in hyper-saline-arid regions, The Journal Soil & Environment , Volume 40, Issue 1.
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