Dynamics of Soil Salinity in Irrigation Areas in South Kazakhstan

Abstract

IntroductionAs a natural system, each terrain has important properties: self-organization, self-regulation, and selfrenewal -all of which facilitate sustainable development of an ecosystem and its ability to resist degradation and crisis processes. Sustainability of terrain is associated with the ability of its components to conserve their structure and function under external influences [1].At present, the impact of anthropogenic factors often exceeds maximal permissible limits, destroying natural ecosystems. First of all, land degradation results in expanded water and wind erosion, reduction of groundwater level, pollution, water logging and salinity of irrigated and non-irrigated soils [2]. Especially in arid regions where productivity of agricultural production is dependent on land irrigation, and soils are mostly subjected to salinity. The following six groups of degradation have been outlined in the World Atlas of Desertification [3]: water erosion, wind erosion, soil fertility decreases, salinization, Pol. J. Environ. Stud. Vol. 25, No. 6 (2016), 2469-2475 Original Research Dynamics of Soil Salinity in Irrigation AbstractThe analysis has been conducted of possibility of determining the extent of soil salinity by indirect and direct decoding of satellite images Pleiades 1A / 1B (in the year of survey) and LANDSATTM (archive). It was found that indirect decoding of salinity based on spectral char-acteristics of vegetation images is strongly dependent on crop growth phase (period of shoot-ing). LANDSAT archive images with normalized soil salinity index (NDSI) allow to develop salinity maps and soil salinity dynamics maps at semi-quantitative level. Based on computer analysis of LANDSAT images it was determined that soil salinity at study object during the pe-riod from 1987 to 2014 has increased due to significant decrease of the area of non-saline soil by 41.5% and increasing of the areas of low and moderately saline soils by 34.9%, also regions with heavily saline soils at 6.6% of total surveyed area have been detected, which previously were absent.

Determining Salinity and Ion Soil Using Satellite Image Processing

“…Among the publications made with the use of these indices, several authors agree that the application of both NDVI and NDSI obtain similar results in the detection of salt areas [1,3,[18][19][20][21]. However, most of them avoid using NDSI, despite having this algorithm closer to the process of salinization in soils and more related to the electrical conductivity of the same [1,6,[18][19][20][21].…”

Identification of Salt and Drought Biochemical Stress Markers in Several Silene vulgaris Populations

“…Abiotic stresses are known to reduce plants´vegetative growth and reproductive success by decreasing the energy generated from photosynthesis and diverting resources and metabolic precursors from primary metabolism and biomass accumulation toward activation of the stress response mechanism [1]. These stresses include cold, heat, and alkalinity, among others: However, drought and soil salinity are the environmental factors with the strongest negative impact on crop productivity worldwide and largely determine the distribution of wild plant species in nature [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. This has resulted in substantial scientific efforts being invested in the elucidation of abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms in plants, to help mitigate those adverse effects on crop yields [10][11][12][13].…”

Potential eolian dust contribution to accumulation of selected heavy metals and rare earth elements in the aboveground biomass of Tamarix spp. from saline soils in Kazakhstan

“…(Saparov 2014 ; Pachikin et al 2014 ) It is estimated that 75% of the Kazakhstani territory is covered with degraded soils, and 14% of these soils were classified as heavily degraded. According to Laiskhanov et al 2016 ), the area of 41% of Kazakhstani soils is saline. Eleven percent out of them are subject to secondary salinization, mostly due to inappropriate irrigation techniques (Otarov 2014 ).…”