In chemistry, an alkali is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The adjective alkaline is commonly, and alkalescent less often, used in English as a synonym for basic, especially for bases soluble in water. This broad use of the term is likely to have come about because alkalis were the first bases known to obey the Arrhenius definition of a base, and they are still among the most common bases.
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. It can also come about through artificial processes such as irrigation and road salt.
The Great Basin Desert is part of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range. The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife Fund, and the Central Basin and Range ecoregion defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and United States Geological Survey. It is a temperate desert with hot, dry summers and snowy winters. The desert spans a large part of the state of Nevada, and extends into western Utah, eastern California, and Idaho. The desert is one of the four biologically defined deserts in North America, in addition to the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts.
A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. The Convention on Wetlands, known as the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental environmental treaty established in 1971 by UNESCO, which came into force in 1975. It provides for national action and international cooperation regarding the conservation of wetlands, and wise sustainable use of their resources. Ramsar identifies wetlands of international importance, especially those providing waterfowl habitat.
Soil fertility refers to the ability of soil to sustain agricultural plant growth, i.e. to provide plant habitat and result in sustained and consistent yields of high quality. A fertile soil has the following properties:
Alkali, or Alkaline, soils are clay soils with high pH, a poor soil structure and a low infiltration capacity. Often they have a hard calcareous layer at 0.5 to 1 metre depth. Alkali soils owe their unfavorable physico-chemical properties mainly to the dominating presence of sodium carbonate, which causes the soil to swell and difficult to clarify/settle. They derive their name from the alkali metal group of elements, to which sodium belongs, and which can induce basicity. Sometimes these soils are also referred to as alkaline sodic soils.
Alkaline soils are basic, but not all basic soils are alkaline.
A soda lake or alkaline lake is a lake on the strongly alkaline side of neutrality, typically with a pH value between 9 and 12. They are characterized by high concentrations of carbonate salts, typically sodium carbonate, giving rise to their alkalinity. In addition, many soda lakes also contain high concentrations of sodium chloride and other dissolved salts, making them saline or hypersaline lakes as well. High pH and salinity often coincide, because of how soda lakes develop. The resulting hypersaline and highly alkalic soda lakes are considered some of the most extreme aquatic environments on Earth.
The residual sodium carbonate (RSC) index of irrigation water or soil water is used to indicate the alkalinity hazard for soil. The RSC index is used to find the suitability of the water for irrigation in clay soils which have a high cation exchange capacity. When dissolved sodium in comparison with dissolved calcium and magnesium is high in water, clay soil swells or undergoes dispersion which drastically reduces its infiltration capacity.
The Central Soil Salinity Research Institute is an autonomous institute of higher learning, established under the umbrella of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India for advanced research in the field of soil sciences. The Institute is located on Kachawa Road in Karnal, in the state of Haryana, 125 km from the Indian capital of New Delhi.
Streptomyces fukangensis is an alkaliphilic bacterium species from the genus of Streptomyces which has been isolated from desert soil from Xinjiang in China.
Streptomyces sparsus is a bacterium species from the genus of Streptomyces which has been isolated from saline and alkaline soil in the Qinghai Province in China.
Nocardiopsis quinghaiensis is a Gram-positive and aerobic bacterium from the genus of Nocardiopsis which has been isolated from alkaline soil in Qaidam Basin in China.
Aliidiomarina is a genus of halophilic bacteria.
Streptomyces daqingensis is a bacterium species from the genus of Streptomyces which has been isolated from saline-alkaline soil in Heilongjiang in China.
Texcoconibacillus is a genus of bacteria from the family of Bacillaceae with one known species. Texcoconibacillus texcoconensis has been isolated from the lake Texcoco in Mexico.
Oleiagrimonas soli is a bacterium from the genus of Oleiagrimonas which has been isolated from saline soil contaminated wit oil from Gudao in China.
Arenimonas soli is a Gram-negative, aerobic and non-motile bacterium from the genus of Arenimonas which has been isolated from saline-alkaline soil from Hanggin Banner from the Inner Mongolia.
Yaniella soli is a Gram-negative, slightly halophilic non-spore-forming, facultatively alkaliphilic and non-motile bacterium from the genus of Yaniella which has been isolated from forest soil from the Hunan Province in China.
Sphingobacterium olei is a Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, and non-motile bacterium. It was first isolated from oil-contaminated soil in Daqing oil field, China. S. olei has been found to be able to degrade herbicides quizalofop-p-ethyl and diclofop-methyl. Before a name was given, S. olei was designated as strain HAL-9T. The species name olei means “oil” in Latin.
Halovibrio salipaludis is a Gram-negative, aerobic, halophilic and motile bacterium from the genus of Halovibrio which has been isolated from saline-alkaline wetland soil from Binhai.
