SOIL SALINITY AND
ALKALINITY
PRESENTED BY:
• Mirza Fazeel Ahmad
• Mirza Abdul Wahab
• Hassan Sajid
• M Talha
• Sanya Zia
• Kainat Farooq
SALINITY
• soil salinity is the salt content in the soil; the process of increasing the salt
content is known as salinization. Salts occur naturally within soils and
water. Salination can be caused by natural processes such as mineral
weathering or by the gradual withdrawal of an ocean.
SOIL ALKALINYTY
• Alkaline soils are soils (mostly clay soils) with a high pH (> 9) and a poor
• Soil structure and a low infiltration capacity. The are not saline, i.e. the
• Total amount of soluble soils, especially sodium chlorides, is not excessive
• (ECe < 4 to 8 dS/m). Often they have a hard calcareous layer at 0.5 to 1 m.
CAUSES OF SOIL ALKALINYTY
• • The causes of soil alkalinity are natural or they can be man-made. The
natural development is due to the presence soil minerals producing sodium
carbonate upon whethering. The man-made development is due to the
application of irrigation water (surface or ground water) containg a relatively
high proportion of sodium bicarbonates)
SALINE SOILS
• Saline soils occur in soils with pH>8.5
• Ca2+, Mg2+, K+ and Na+ do not produce acid upon reacting with water
• The do not produce OH- ions either, but in soils with pH>8.5, there are higher
concentrations of carbonate and bicarbonate anions (due to dissolution of
certain minerals)
• pH rises more for most soluble minerals (eg. NaCO3) •pH rise is limited by
the common ion effect
NUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES IN SALINE SOIL
• •Fe deficiency common because its solubility is extremely low in alkaline conditions
• •Addition of inorganic fertilizer may not improve this deficiency as they quickly
become tied up in Insoluble forms
• •Chelate compounds are often applied to soils (Fe associated with organic compounds)
• • Under high pH, B tightly adsorbs to clays in an irreversible set of reactions. In sandy
soils, B content is generally low under any pH level (especially acid soils
EFFECT OF SOIL PH ON NUTRIENT CONTENT AND SOIL
MICROORGANISMS
SALINIZATION
Soil salinity hinders the growth of crops by lowering the osmotic potential of the soil, thus
limiting the ability of roots to take up water (osmotic effect). Plants must accumulate organic and
inorganic solutes within their cells.
Specific ion effect: Na+ ions compete with K+
Soil structure breaks down, leading to poor oxygenation and infiltration & percolation rates
•36% of prairie farmland has 1-15% of its lands affected by salinization and 2% has more than
15% of its lands affected.
•Most prairie farmland (61% in Manitoba, 59% in Saskatchewan, and 80% in Alberta) has a low
chance of increasing salinity under current farming practices.
Conditions promoting salinization:
•the presence of soluble salts in the soil
•a high water table
•ET >> P
These features are commonplace in:
•Prairie depressions and drainage courses
•At the base of hillslopes
•In flat, lowlying areas surrounding sloughs and shallow water
bodies.
•In areas receiving regional discharge of groundwater
WHERE IT OCCURS
The extent of alkaline soils is not precisely known. Important research on
alkaline soils has mainly occurred in Central Europe and North India (above
the Ganges river), where alkaline soils occur frequently
PROBLEMS
Alkaline soils are difficult to take into agricultural production. Rainwater
stagnates on the soil easily and, in dry periods, irrigation is hardly possible.
Agriculture is limited to crops tolerant to surface water logging (e.g. rice,
grasses) and the productivity is low.
THE PRESENCE OF ABUNDANT NA
• Ions and the precipitation of Ca++ ions causes the clay particles, which have
negative electric charges along their surfaces, to adsorb more Na+ and, in
exchange, release Ca++, by which their exchangeable sodium percentage
(ESP) is increased as follows:
CLAY PARTICLES
• Clay particles with considerable, in nonsaline conditions, and in contact with
non-saline water occupy a larger volume than otherwise, because the Na+
ions are quite mobile and have smaller electric charges than Ca++ ions,
hence they are adsorbed less coherently to the surface of the clay particle
and they float farther away: the soil swells
CONTINUE….
• The problems of alkalinity and sodicity go hand in hand. Alkaline/sodic soils
are not necessarily saline, and the alkalinity problem is worse as thesalinity is
less. Alkalinity problems are more pronounced in clay soils than in loamy, silty
or sandy soils. The clay soils containing montmorrillonitic or smectitic
minerals (swelling clays) are more subject to alkalinity problems than illitic or
kaolinitic clay soils. The reason is that the former types of clay have larger
specific surface areas (i.e. the surface area of the soil particles divided by their
volume).
SOLUTIONS
• Alkaline/sodic soils with solid CaCO3 can be reclaimed with grass cultures,
ensuring the incorporation of much acidifying organic material into the soil,
and leaching of the excess sodium. Deep ploughing and incorporating the
calcareous subsoil into the topsoil also helps. It is also possible to reclaim
alkaline soils by adding acidifying minerals like pyrite (see next section on
acid sulphate soils). If necessary, gypsum (calcium sulphate, CaSO4) can
also be applied as a source of Ca++ ions
CONTINUE….
• • To reclaim the soils properly one needs prohibitively high of doses of
amendments. Most efforts are therefore directed to improving the top layer
only (say the first 10 cm of the soils), as the top layer is most sensitive to
structure deterioration. The treatments, however, need to be repeated in afew
(say 5) years time It will be important to refrain from irrigation with poor
quality water.
THANKYOU!!!!!!!
