A review of salinity tolerance research in horticultural crops

抄録

Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses that inhibit plant growth and reduce crop yield. There are about 800 million hectares of salt-affected farmland worldwide and this number is predicted to increase. High soil salinity is primarily caused by poor irrigation management and saline groundwater, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, in addition to natural causes. In coastal regions, seawater intrusion can increase soil salinity. Due to climate change and increased population, high-quality water supply has become increasingly limited and competition for high-quality water between urban and agriculture users has become more intense. Use of treated municipal recycled water for irrigating landscapes and other non-traditional waters for irrigating agricultural crops has become a common practice in water scarce regions. Water-intensive operations such as greenhouse and nursery growers are forced to recycle and reuse irrigation water. In these non-traditional water uses, salinity, primarily sodium chloride, is often too high for optimum crop growth and development. Therefore, information on salinity tolerance of horticultural crops is needed in order to sustainably produce horticultural crops in salt-affected lands and use of non-traditional water sources for irrigating horticultural crops. This paper provides a short review on salinity tolerance of the main categories of horticultural crops, including some background information on salinity tolerance assessment methodology.