Salinisation
Salinisation
One of the main issues that I feel needs to be addressed in society are the environmental issues. Salinisation (the accumulation of salts in soil) is one of today’s worst environmental disasters and yet it does not share the global spotlight with other ecological issues. Considering the threat that salinisation poses to nearly all irrigated dry lands and the consequential impact on traditional agriculture, such lagging public awareness is, at the very least, disconcerting.
Contributing ecological factors such as soil type, climate, rainfall and topography make some lands more expose to the salinisation process. However, the vast majority of land affecting through salinisation can be directly linked to human activities, whether it be destroying natural vegetation and bush lands to clear the land for farms, over-irrigation of cultivated land and/or poor farming practices. Countries like Australia are beginning to see the devastation of increasing salinity levels after a relatively short period of introduced European farming methods.
Nature dealt reasonably successfully with salinity levels in Australia prior to European settlement. Natural vegetation, including deep-rooted trees, ensured that salts were dissolved as rainwater slowly filtered down through the soil. Salt was moved downward and remained in the groundwater below the root zone of the plants. The fibrous root structure of those native plants, acted as an effective filter with their high water-holding capacity. Some rainwater was held by the roots and some rainwater leached downwards through the soil carrying the dissolved salts. Groundwater transpired back into the air through the leaves of the native plants.
As Europeans introduced traditional forms of agriculture and cleared large areas of land for grazing in the 1800s, much of the native vegetation in Australia was replaced by generally shallow, rooted annual crops and pastures, substantially changing the natural process that had
One of the main issues that I feel needs to be addressed in society are the environmental issues. Salinisation (the accumulation of salts in soil) is one of today’s worst environmental disasters and yet it does not share the global spotlight with other ecological issues. Considering the threat that salinisation poses to nearly all irrigated dry lands and the consequential impact on traditional agriculture, such lagging public awareness is, at the very least, disconcerting.
Contributing ecological factors such as soil type, climate, rainfall and topography make some lands more expose to the salinisation process. However, the vast majority of land affecting through salinisation can be directly linked to human activities, whether it be destroying natural vegetation and bush lands to clear the land for farms, over-irrigation of cultivated land and/or poor farming practices. Countries like Australia are beginning to see the devastation of increasing salinity levels after a relatively short period of introduced European farming methods.
Nature dealt reasonably successfully with salinity levels in Australia prior to European settlement. Natural vegetation, including deep-rooted trees, ensured that salts were dissolved as rainwater slowly filtered down through the soil. Salt was moved downward and remained in the groundwater below the root zone of the plants. The fibrous root structure of those native plants, acted as an effective filter with their high water-holding capacity. Some rainwater was held by the roots and some rainwater leached downwards through the soil carrying the dissolved salts. Groundwater transpired back into the air through the leaves of the native plants.
As Europeans introduced traditional forms of agriculture and cleared large areas of land for grazing in the 1800s, much of the native vegetation in Australia was replaced by generally shallow, rooted annual crops and pastures, substantially changing the natural process that had