Assessment of the State of Soil

Salinity for Analysis of

Geochemical Stability of

Landscapes in Dry Areas

German Kust, Olga Andreeva

Variety of manifestations of saline soils in landscape: saline elevations

0

20

40

60

80

100

0

20

40

60SO4 Cl HCO3 Ca Mg Na

Variety of manifestations of saline soils in landscape: saline depressions 0

50

100SO4 Cl HCO3 Ca Mg Na

0

50

100SO4 Cl HCO3 Ca Mg Na

0

100

SO4 Cl HCO3

Variety of manifestations of saline soils in landscape: drained elevations and depression but saline slopes

0

20

40

60

-25 -15 -5 5 15 25

SO4 Cl HCO3 Ca Mg Na

0

20

40

60

-30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30

SO4 Cl HCO3 Ca Mg Na

-10

10

30

50

70

90

-10 -5 0 5 10

Variety of manifestations of saline soils in landscape: several salt maximums in soil profile

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4

SO4 Cl HCO3 Ca Mg Na

0

20

40

60

80

SO4 Cl HCO3 Ca Mg Na

0

50

100

150

200

SO4 Cl HCO3 Ca Mg Na

Working hypothesis: All saline soils are unstable, aren’t they?

Salinization Desalinization

Irregular

But what about saline landscapes?Ancient dried deltaic landscapeAbandoned agricultural landsRecent desertification, arable zone

But what about saline landscapes?

1985 2015

Natural

Agrarian

Geochemical stability of saline landscapes (general scheme)