JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

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In this study, the potential use of halophyte grasses, Aleuropus littoralis and A. lagopoides, on soil desalinization and lowering soil salinity was investigated under glasshouse conditions. The seeds of two species were collected from Rodasht area in Isfahan and grown with four salinity treatments obtained from different types of collected soils and replicated three times. Electrical conductivities of the four soil treatments were 12.4, 29.5, 43, and 69 dS/m. The results of mean comparison showed that shoot and root dry weight, sodium contents of dry weight and Na/K ratio were significantly different in both salinized species. Both species effectively reduced soil electrical conductivity by 23 to 42.5%. This was mainly due to ion absorbtion, and consequently, from Na⁺, Cl^-, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺ ionic reduction. In general, considerable amounts of ionic absorbtion and total soluble salt secretion through their salt glands appeared to have the most pronounced effects on decreasing soil salinity. Regarding 50% salt excretion by these species, growing these grasses could be a possible way to decrease soil salinity by grazing or harvesting salt crusted foliage from the site.

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Studying the sustainability of farming systems entails the integrated assessment of the strong interdependence between their environmental, economic and social attributes. Optimum allocation of water resources in a farming system improves the conservation and sustainability status of resources in addition to reducing the socio-economical damages. In order to analyze and assess the different aspects of farm management and agricultural systems planning, a number of mathematical programming models have been developed in recent decades. The purpose of this article was to assess and analyse the sustanability and determine the appropriate pattern of cropping in a rural farming system, namely, south Baraan located in the east of Isfahan city. In order to incorporate environmental, economic and social dimentions, two criteria of maximum net return and employment creation per unit of agricultural water consumption were defined as system’s sustainability indicators. Thus, the ratios “net return / water consumption” and “employment / water consumption” were optimized by using single and multiple objective fractional programming models. The economic and social efficiency of each unit of agricultural water consumption was computed and compared in several single and multiple objective scenarios of linear and fractional programming models, and finally the most appropriate patterns of cropping for the region were determined based on the available land, water and human resources of the region.