The U.S. Salinity Laboratory is a National Laboratory for research on salt-affected soil-plant-water systems. It resorts under the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and is located in Riverside, California, U.S.A.
The mission of its staff is to develop, amongst other, new knowledge and technology for crop production on salt-affected lands. [1]
The Lab started its operations in 1947 at Riverside. [2]
In 1954 one of the first all encompassing publications, the USDA Agriculture Handbook No. 60, has seen the light [3]
Saline and alkali soil conditions reduce the value and productivity of considerable areas of land in the United States. The problem is an old one, and there is much information on this subject in the technical literature. Many crop failures result from growing crops that have low salt tolerance. Alfalfa, barley, sugar beets, and cotton are tolerant crops that can often be grown where salinity is a problem. [3]
The Salinity Laboratory keeps data bases of salt tolerance of crops divided into 5 groups: 1) Fiber, Grain and Special Crops, 2) Grasses and Forage Crops, 3) Vegetables and Fruit Crops, 4) Woody Crops, 5) Ornamental Shrubs, Trees and Ground Cover. [5]
Software for quite a number of soil salinity models covering different aspects was developed at Riverside, including the Hydrus model [6] and the Van Genuchten–Gupta model. [7]
Biosalinity is the study and practice of using saline (salty) water for irrigating agricultural crops.
Halotolerance is the adaptation of living organisms to conditions of high salinity. Halotolerant species tend to live in areas such as hypersaline lakes, coastal dunes, saline deserts, salt marshes, and inland salt seas and springs. Halophiles are organisms that live in highly saline environments, and require the salinity to survive, while halotolerant organisms can grow under saline conditions, but do not require elevated concentrations of salt for growth. Halophytes are salt-tolerant higher plants. Halotolerant microorganisms are of considerable biotechnological interest.
A halophyte is a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs and seashores. The word derives from Ancient Greek ἅλας (halas) 'salt' and φυτόν (phyton) 'plant'. An example of a halophyte is the salt marsh grass Spartina alterniflora. Relatively few plant species are halophytes—perhaps only 2% of all plant species.
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 Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area. ARS is charged with extending the nation's scientific knowledge and solving agricultural problems through its four national program areas: nutrition, food safety and quality; animal production and protection; natural resources and sustainable agricultural systems; and crop production and protection. ARS research focuses on solving problems affecting Americans every day. The ARS Headquarters is located in the Jamie L. Whitten Building on Independence Avenue in Washington, D.C. and the headquarters staff is located at the George Washington Carver Center (GWCC) in Beltsville, Maryland. For 2018, its budget was $1.2 billion.
Agrostis stolonifera is a perennial grass species in the family Poaceae.
Soil salinity control relates to controlling the problem of soil salinity and reclaiming salinized agricultural land.
Hydrus is a suite of Windows-based modeling software that can be used for analysis of water flow, heat and solute transport in variably saturated porous media. HYDRUS suite of software is supported by an interactive graphics-based interface for data-preprocessing, discretization of the soil profile, and graphic presentation of the results. While HYDRUS-1D simulates water flow, solute and heat transport in one-dimension, and is a public domain software, HYDRUS 2D/3D extends the simulation capabilities to the second and third dimensions, and is distributed commercially.
Atriplex lentiformis is a species of saltbush.
Solidago sempervirens, the seaside goldenrod or salt-marsh goldenrod, is a plant species in the genus Solidago of the family Asteraceae. It is native to eastern North America and parts of the Caribbean. It is an introduced species in the Great Lakes region. Similar plants found in the Azores are thought have evolved from a natural introduction of this species.
The environmental impacts of irrigation relate to the changes in quantity and quality of soil and water as a result of irrigation and the effects on natural and social conditions in river basins and downstream of an irrigation scheme. The impacts stem from the altered hydrological conditions caused by the installation and operation of the irrigation scheme.
Elymus trachycaulus is a species of wild rye known by the common name slender wheatgrass. It is native to much of North America. It grows in widely varied habitats from northern Canada to Mexico, but is absent from most of the southeastern United States.
A leaching model is a hydrological model by which the leaching with irrigation water of dissolved substances, notably salt, in the soil is described depending on the hydrological regime and the soil's properties.
The model may describe the process (1) in time and (2) as a function of amount of water applied.
Leaching is often done to reclaim saline soil or to conserve a favorable salt content of the soil of irrigated land as all irrigation water contains salts.
Paspalum vaginatum is a species of grass known by many names, including seashore paspalum, biscuit grass, saltwater couch, silt grass, and swamp couch. It is native to the Americas, where it grows in tropical and subtropical regions. It is found throughout the other tropical areas of the world, where it is an introduced species and sometimes an invasive weed. It is also cultivated as a turfgrass in many places.
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.
The Western Regional Research Center (WRRC), located in Albany, California, is one of four regional laboratories within the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. The WRRC has six research units, which conduct research into food production, processing, safety, bioproducts and invasive species control.
Salt tolerance of crops is the maximum salt level a crop tolerates without losing its productivity while it is affected negatively at higher levels. The salt level is often taken as the soil salinity or the salinity of the irrigation water.
Crop tolerance to seawater is the ability of an agricultural crop to withstand the high salinity induced by irrigation with seawater, or a mixture of fresh water and seawater. There are crops that can grow on seawater and demonstration farms have shown the feasibility. The government of the Netherlands reports a breakthrough in food security as specific varieties of potatoes, carrots, red onions, white cabbage and broccoli appear to thrive if they are irrigated with salt water.
The van Genuchten–Gupta model is an inverted S-curve applicable to crop yield and soil salinity relations.
The Maas–Hoffman model is a mathematical tool to characterize the relation between crop production and soil salinity. It describes the crop response by a broken line of which the first part is horizontal and the second is sloping downward. The breakpoint (Pb) or threshold is also called tolerance because up to that point the yield is unaffected by the salinity, so the salt is tolerated, while at greater salinity values the crops are affected negatively and the yield goes down.
Coordinates: 33°58′32″N117°19′04″W / 33.975487°N 117.317774°W