Salt of the Earth: Quantifying the Impact of Water Salinity on Global Agricultural Productivity

Russ, Jason; Zaveri, Esha; Damania, Richard; Desbureaux, Sébastien; Escurra, Jorge; Rodella, Aude-Sophie

doi:10.1596/1813-9450-9144

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Salinity stress is one of the major abiotic stresses that limits the growth and yield of crops, such as maize (Zea mays), wheat (Triticum aestivum), rice (Oryza sativa), and soybean (Glycine max), which adversely impact food security (Russ et al, 2020;Zorb et al, 2019). To combat the challenges posed by salinity stress, plants adopted various strategies including the regulation of transcriptional responses and protein activities, maintaining osmotic and ionic balance, and metabolic adjustments (Phang et al, 2008;van Zelm et al, 2020;Yung et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Priming‐induced alterations in histone modifications modulate transcriptional responses in soybean under salt stress

et al. 2022

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Plants that have experienced certain abiotic stress may gain tolerance to a similar stress in subsequent exposure. This phenomenon, called priming, was observed here in soybean (Glycine max) seedlings exposed to salt stress. Time-course transcriptomic profiles revealed distinctively different transcriptional responses in the primed seedlings from those in the non-primed seedlings under high salinity stress, indicating a stress response strategy of repressing unhelpful biotic stress responses and focusing on the promotion of those responses important for salt tolerance. To identify histone marks altered by the priming salinity treatment, a genome-wide profiling of histone 3 lysine 4 dimethylation (H3K4me2), H3K4me3, and histone 3 lysine 9 acetylation (H3K9ac) was performed. Our integrative analyses revealed that priming induced drastic alterations in these histone marks, which coordinately modified the stress response, ion homeostasis, and cell wall modification. Furthermore, transcriptional network analyses unveiled epigenetically modified networks which mediate the strategic downregulation of defense responses. Altering the histone acetylation status using a chemical inhibitor could elicit the priming-like transcriptional responses in non-primed seedlings, confirming the importance of histone marks in forming the priming response.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Priming‐induced alterations in histone modifications modulate transcriptional responses in soybean under salt stress

et al. 2022

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“…Although research on salinisation is growing, a main challenge is to better understand soil and water salinity interactions and its drivers. For instance, irrigation is known to be both a driver and a victim of freshwater salinisation (Russ et al 2020, Thorslund et al 2021, but large-scale understanding of current feedbacks between irrigation water use, climate and changing salinity levels in soil, ground-and surface waters is still lacking (Cunillera-Montcusí et al 2022). Integrated modelling efforts of water availability, salinity and crop changes under future conditions are also needed to better predict and sustainably manage irrigation and crop production under global change (Winter et al 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Water scarcity is a common problem for the irrigation sector, which may be driven by both water shortages and water quality issues (Pereira et al 2002). Salinity is one of the most critical water quality parameters for irrigation, because of the potential crop yield reductions that can result from the use of saline water and soil-salinity build-up (Russ et al 2020). Elevated salinity levels could thus severely limit the usability of water resources for irrigation and could increase water scarcity for this sector (Assouline et al 2015, Velmurugan et al 2020.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salinity impacts on irrigation water-scarcity in food bowl regions of the US and Australia

Thorslund

Bierkens

Scaini

et al. 2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Irrigation water use and crop production may be severely limited by both water shortages and increased salinity levels. However, impacts of crop-specific salinity limitations on irrigation water scarcity are largely unknown. We develop a salinity-inclusive water scarcity framework for the irrigation sector, accounting for crop-specific irrigation water demands and salinity tolerance levels and apply it to 29 sub-basins within two food bowl regions; the Central Valley (California) and the Murray Darling Basin (Australia). Our results show that severe water scarcity (levels >0.4) occurs in 23 % and 66 % of all instances (from > 17,000 monthly crop-specific estimates) for the Central Valley and Murray Darling Basin, respectively. The highest water scarcity levels for both regions occurred during their summer seasons. Including salinity and crop-specific salinity tolerance levels further increased water scarcity levels, compared to estimations based on water quantity only, particularly at local sub-basin scales. We further investigate the potential of alleviating water scarcity through diluting surface water with lower saline groundwater resources, at instances where crop salinity tolerance levels are exceeded (conjunctive water use). Results from the Central Valley highlights that conjunctive water use can reduce severe water scarcity levels by up to 67 % (from 946 monthly instances where surface water salinity tolerance levels were exceeded). However, groundwater dilution requirements frequently exceed renewable groundwater rates, posing additional risks for groundwater depletion in several sub-basins. By capturing the dynamics of both crops, salinity and conjunctive water use, our framework can support local-regional agricultural and water management impacts, on water scarcity levels.

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“…Ecosystem degradation due to increased salinization is evident for example in Australia where over 2 million hectares of agricultural land suffer massive production losses [94] and several plant species are threatened as a consequence of salinization [14, [95][96][97]. Salinization continues to reduce agricultural productivity [88,98], hence attracting research on NBSs for the reclamation of salt-affected soils.…”

Section: Salinization Threatened Ecosystems and Plant Salt-tolerance Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cyanobacteria as a Nature-Based Biotechnological Tool for Restoring Salt-Affected Soils

et al. 2020

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Soil salinization poses an important threat to terrestrial ecosystems and is expected to increase as a consequence of climate change and anthropogenic pressures. Conventional methods such as salt-leaching or application of soil amendments, or nature-based solutions (NBSs) such as phytoremediation, have been widely adopted with contrasting results. The use of cyanobacteria for improving soil conditions has emerged as a novel biotechnological tool for ecosystem restoration due to the unique features of these organisms, e.g., ability to fix carbon and nitrogen and promote soil stabilisation. Cyanobacteria distribute over a wide range of salt concentrations and several species can adapt to fluctuating salinity conditions. Their application in agricultural saline soil remediation has been demonstrated, mostly in laboratory studies, but there is a lack of research regarding their use in natural ecosystems restoration. In this article, we provide an overview of the current knowledge on cyanobacteria in the context of ecosystem restoration. Examples of the application of cyanobacteria in alleviating salt-stress in plants and soils are presented. Furthermore, we acknowledge gaps regarding the extensive application of cyanobacteria in salt-affected soils remediation and discuss the challenges of NBSs in salt-affected soils restoration.

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Salt of the Earth: Quantifying the Impact of Water Salinity on Global Agricultural Productivity

Cited by 9 publications

References 20 publications

Priming‐induced alterations in histone modifications modulate transcriptional responses in soybean under salt stress

Priming‐induced alterations in histone modifications modulate transcriptional responses in soybean under salt stress

Salinity impacts on irrigation water-scarcity in food bowl regions of the US and Australia

Cyanobacteria as a Nature-Based Biotechnological Tool for Restoring Salt-Affected Soils

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