Working Group 1

Soil and water salinity: physical and biochemical characteristics at different scales

Description

This WG will improve our understanding on how salinization is building up in inland / coastal areas in temporal and spatial scale focusing on: i) evaluation of existing soil mapping technologies and analysis pipelines; and ii) providing new guidelines to capture soil properties at a scale physiologically relevant for plants.

Tasks

  • Task 1.1

    Review literature on current methodologies used for soil salinity monitoring to identify gaps and where technological development should focus on to improve soil salinity mapping now and in the future with a good spatial and temporal resolution;

  • Task 1.2

    Determine from existing data the relevant spatio-temporal scale when monitoring soil salinity and other relevant spatio-temporal variables (e.g. nutrients, water, soil type, etc) to include in maps in drylands and irrigated lands;

  • Task 1.3

    Literature review and analysis of co-occurring and jointly-acting stresses in saline soils from different sources from published work and from input from synergies with other initiatives of soil salinity;

  • Task 1.4

    Feed the new knowledge to WG2-3 for the preparation of the databases (tasks 2.7 and 3,1), to facilitate exchange of knowledge, cross-disciplinary knowledge creation and capacity building across WGs.

Deliverables

  • Deliverable 1.1

    Identification of gaps on current methodologies used for soil salinity monitoring (M0-12)

  • Deliverable 1.2.1

    Identification of the relevant spatio-temporal time scales when monitoring soil salinity (M7-12)

  • Deliverable 1.2.2

    Identification of the most promising technologies to monitor soil and water salinity(M7-18)

  • Deliverable 1.3

    Addition of collected metadata into the open-access platform (M18-36, 42-48)

  • Task 1.3 (“Addition of collected metadata into the open-access platform”) was accomplished through the creation and release of a questionnaire (KoBoToolbox form: https://ee.kobotoolbox.org/x/sj3N25Lx). In addition to metadata collected via the questionnaire, data extracted from peer-reviewed publications were also summarized, classified, and visualized within the open-access platform (https://linwang-tech.github.io/my-map/)
  • Basic information from the questionnaire was made publicly available on the platform, while detailed soil property data from questionnaire were not uploaded to protect the privacy of participants. Access to the complete dataset can be requested from Lin Wang([email protected]; [email protected]).
  • Deliverable 1.4.1

    Scientific paper summarising the results from the literature review (M12-18)

  • Deliverable 1.4.2

    White paper providing guidance on soil mapping to capture heterogeneity, sustainable agricultural practices and identifying gaps and new innovations/technologies (M18-24)

cost

COST

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career and innovation.

COST Action CA22144

Salinisation, the accumulation of water-soluble salts in the soil, is one of the major causes of soil degradation affecting 833 million hectares of land and 1.5 billion inhabitants worldwide. However, these lands can be used by applying saline agriculture, involving soil, water and salt-tolerant crop management methods.

Action Contacts

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