A review on impact of salt stress in soil health and its suitable control measure

Abstract

Soil salinity is associated with the accumulation of soluble salts in higher concentration deteriorating soil health associated with unfavourable environment for plant growth. It is mostly confined to those regions where there is high temperature and low precipitation, mostly in arid and semi-arid regions. Major factors responsible for soil salinity can be categorised into primary and secondary factor affecting at the spatial and temporal scale. Higher concentration of soluble salts in soil increase the osmotic potential disrupting the movement of water from root to leaf. So, soil salinity is primarily associated with the water stress condition in plants which is a direct impact to plants. Indirectly it interferes with the nutrients absorption which is one of the most important factors for proper plant growth. Plants poses different mechanisms to avoid salt stress condition in soil but maximum of it are an active processes were additional energy must have to spend for it that can impact proper growth and production. The ions primarily responsible for both the soil and plant stress under soil salinity are Na+ and Cl- which concentration increases with certain primary and secondary soil salinization factors. So, primary aim to control the impact of soil salinity is to reduce the activity/concentration of both Na+ and Cl- from the soil. So, use of the essential nutrients (K+ and SO4-2) that has an antagonistic relationship with the salts is a new approach. Due to similar charge and physico chemical properties of K+ and SO4-2 with toxic ions Na+ and Cl- respectively, there lies an antagonistic relationship. Furthermore, SO4-2 of its less toxicity to plants and improve soil pH condition especially in arid and semi-arid region, the combination of K+ and SO4-2 salt is a good combination to ameliorate the Na+ and Cl- toxicity under saline soil.

Keywords

• climate change
• land use change
• plant physiology
• potassium sulphate
• soil salinization
• salt stress