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Review

Distribution and Potential Uses of Halophytes within the Gulf Cooperation Council States

by
Mohammed J. Al-Azzawi
and
Timothy J. Flowers
*
Department of Evolution, Behaviour and Environment, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Agronomy 2022, 12(5), 1030; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12051030
Submission received: 3 March 2022 / Revised: 9 April 2022 / Accepted: 22 April 2022 / Published: 25 April 2022
Review Reports Versions Notes

Abstract

:
The continued growth in the human population of the world will generate an increased demand for food that will be hard to meet with existing agricultural systems, as an equivalent increase in agricultural land is not available. Predicted changes in the climate will likely exacerbate the situation by increasing sea levels and the salinisation of coastal areas. Although most of our crop plants are sensitive to salinity, salt-tolerant plants, halophytes, have evolved and offer a potential as crops that can yield in saline areas or areas irrigated with saline water. We searched the literature for halophytes, identified using the database eHALOPH, native to the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council that could be developed as crops, with the aim of attracting the attention of plant breeders, agriculturists, farmers, and others in the region to the possible uses of halophytes. Halophytic species can be grown and irrigated with brackish water where good drainage is available and used for forage or fodder, to stabilise land, and to produce biomass for fuel. In the longer-term, the cultivation of horticultural crops and those grown for nutraceuticals or pharmaceuticals is feasible.

1. Introduction

The main aim of this review is to attract the attention of plant breeders, agriculturists, farmers, and others within the Gulf States to the benefits of exploiting halophytes and to raise their profile as economically important plants in a world now facing an increase in soil salinity. Halophytes can contribute to a sustainable agriculture as staple foods, as forage, as medicinal plants, and materials from which to extract pharmaceuticals. They can also be important in stabilising salt-affected soil. In this brief review, we highlight the parlous state of the water resources in the countries of the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), tabulate halophytes naturally occurring in the region, and summarise how they might be exploited.
The GCC, founded on 25 May 1981 [1], is a regional intergovernmental political and economic union consisting of six Arabic nations. The current member states are: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA, covering 80% of the Arabian Peninsula) [2], Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The total area of the council is close to 2,572,982 km2 with a population of nearly 58.7 million (https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/, accessed on 10 February 2022).The GCC states are located on the Arabian peninsula (AP) southwest of Asia between the latitudes of 15° and 35° north of the equator and the longitudes of 35° and 60° east of Greenwich, bordered by Iraq and Jordan in the north, the Republic of Yemen and the Arabian Sea in the south, the Arabian Gulf in the east, and the Red Sea in the west.

2. Topography

All the countries of the GCC have coastlines bordering either the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, or the Red Sea, so they have unlimited access to seawater. The land is often affected by salinity, sodicity, and a mixture of the two, producing saline, sodic, and saline–sodic soils [3,4,5,6,7,8]. In the future, the extent of salt-affected land might be expected to increase as sea levels rise.

3. Climate (Meteorological Conditions)

Four seasons are recognised in the Arabian Peninsula based on data collected between 1950 and 2019 [9]. The average annual temperatures in the north are about 30 °C, in the central parts 35 °C, and around 40 °C towards the south and southwest: the lowest averages across the GCC are between 15 and 25 °C during January, and the highest averages are between 45 and 50 °C during July and August [10]. The average monthly rainfall lies in the range of 80–140 mm [11]. The whole of the AP is known to be under severe water stress with only 200 m3/person/year of renewable water, which is alarmingly below the conventional water stress threshold of 500 m3/person/year [12]. It has also been claimed that the AP currently has the lowest per capita renewable water supply, but the highest per capita consumption in the world [13].
Although there is considerable variability in the climatic conditions in the AP, humidity is generally low, apart from along the coasts. On an annual basis, the relative humidity was around 30% in almost the entire region, increasing to 40%–60% in the coastal areas of the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf, and it is about 40% over the eastern and northern parts [10]. Given the relatively high temperatures and low humidity and rainfall, the climate of the GCC countries is arid. Aridity, estimated from the average monthly rainfall and temperature (as mm/°C) [14], is generally 3 or below across the whole AP (Table 1). The arid climate itself presents a challenge for plant growth, a challenge that is exacerbated by dust.
Dust in the central AP is generated both by strong regional winds and local air currents associated with cold air outflow from thunderstorms and is specific to the wet spring season in this region [23]. The eastern areas of the AP have been identified as the most significant areas for dust emission from dry riverbeds (wadis) located east of the Jebel Tuwaiq escarpment in Saudi Arabia, the Ad-Dahna desert, the Rub’ al Khali desert, and the Tigris–Euphrates alluvial plain, which stretches from Iraq to the Arabian Gulf coasts of Kuwait and north eastern Saudi Arabia [23].

4. Water Supply

Globally, rainfall is the most important supply of fresh water. However, since precipitation is low across the AP, the countries of the GCC rely heavily on the desalinisation of sea or ground water for fresh water. Paleologos et al. [24] wrote “In 2010 about 76% of the global seawater desalination capacity was concentrated in the Arabian Gulf with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) leading desalinated water production with 35%, followed by Saudi Arabia with 14% (and another 20% in the Red Sea), Kuwait with 14%, Qatar with 8%, and Bahrain with 5%. That year total desalination capacity of the Gulf countries was assessed to be 5000 Mm3/year (million cubic meters per year) and was expected to rise to 9000 Mm3/year by 2030”. In order to meet increasing water demands, most members of the GCC have more than doubled their desalinisation capacity in the last ten years, and currently four of them are in a recent list of the top fifteen countries for construction orders for desalination plants [24]. There are about 33 major desalination plants in the UAE with a total estimated desalinated water production of 1750 Mm3 in 2013 [24]. Bahrain has only two desalination plants, which produced 191 Mm3/year during 2008 with an additional 26 Mm3/year from saline groundwater rather than seawater. Water produced by desalinisation is primarily for domestic and industrial use rather than agriculture.
Water for agricultural use is extremely limited in the countries of the GCC (see [25] for a comprehensive review of the water resources of the GCC). In Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the UAE, a tertiary-treated sewage effluent (TSE) has been used in agriculture. This prompted similar use across the hyper-arid states of the GCC countries, where there is an emerging interest in using TSE for irrigation in agriculture and watering amenity plantings [26]. However, there are many examples of pollution of groundwaters within the region [27], and because of the shortage of fresh water, we advocate the use of plants that can tolerate salt water for a variety of uses.

5. Salinisation

Underlying factors that contribute to soil salinisation in the AP region are chemical weathering of the soil parent material slowly releasing soluble salts, surface and ground waters that contain dissolved salt, seawater intrusion to surface soils, and wind-borne salt originating from the surrounding seawaters. Soil salinisation is exacerbated by the localised redistribution of salt in dust and the replacement of native vegetation with shallow-rooted crops in poorly managed irrigation schemes. Secondary salinisation has plagued many areas of the world, e.g., [28], although there is little irrigation within the countries of the GCC (see http://wdi.worldbank.org/table/3.2, accessed on 10 February 2022). The aridity and lack of fresh water mean that if agriculture is to prosper within the region of the GCC, alternative production systems need to be considered: systems of saline agriculture.

6. Salt-Tolerant Plants

Given the high demand for food generated by the growth of the human population, there is a clear need for sustainable forms of agriculture in countries with arid climates and limited supplies of fresh water. Here we advocate the use of salt-tolerant crops on salt-affected soils or with saline irrigation. The salt tolerance of plants varies from those species that are killed by salt concentrations as low as 25 mM salt (the most sensitive cultivars of chickpea) [29] to those halophytes that tolerate twice the seawater salt concentrations, e.g., Tecticornia spp. [30]. Here we consider salt-tolerant plants to be those that tolerate salinities above 8 dS/m and halophytes as those plants that tolerate soil salinities above 20 dS /m (equivalent to about 200 mM NaCl) [31]; euhalophytes are those that survive in seawater concentrations of salt (the minimum salt concentration that defines halophytes has varied between authors) [32]. Since most of our current crops are sensitive to salinity, saline agriculture requires increasing the tolerance of the crops we currently grow or the domestication of halophytes [33].
It is important to differentiate between the generation and use of salt-tolerant varieties of current crops and the development of new crops from halophytes. For example, there are now varieties of rice [34] and potato [35] that are much more tolerant than previously assessed [36]. Among conventional crops, some species such as dates, quinoa, spinach, barley, and wheat are relatively (compared to other crops such as chickpea) tolerant, and some are grown within the GCC (Table 2). For example, one of the most commonly found salt-tolerant plants in all of the GCC countries, the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera), produced around 2,380,516 tonnes of dates, which was around 26% of the world production during 2019 (Table 2). However, here we are particularly interested in the development of halophytes as crops that would allow farmers to make use of some of the brackish waters (e.g., water from oil production [37]) and effluent from desalinisation plants to be found within the GCC.
The importance of salt tolerance in agriculture was recognised by Aronson [38] in developing a database, HALOPH, of salt-tolerant plants “for anyone growing or planning to grow halophytes.” [38]. This database includes “species that tolerate a soil salinity of at least 7.8 dS/m [in a saturated] paste for at least some part of their life cycle.” We used eHALOPH (https://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/halophytes/, accessed on 16 April 2021), a modified electronic version of Aronson’s original database [39], to generate a list of halophytes with potential value for countries in the GCC. Table 3 illustrates those halophytes reported to grow within the region, arranged according to their country location, family, economic use, natural habitat, and the salinity tolerated expressed in terms of the electrical conductivity of a saturated soil paste. We concentrated on native species as they are already adapted to the local climatic conditions; much is already known of their distribution and ecology [40], and they should not pose a threat in terms of new invasive species. Of the 24 halophytes listed in Table 3, there is a considerable number (14) that can be used for animal feed, whether as grazing or for the production of fodder. Apart from their use as crops, halophytes also have particular potential in the GCC for the stabilisation of land, given the nature of soils in the region and the fact that plants can be irrigated with saline water. Some of the listed species may have possible use as feedstock in the generation of biofuels.

7. Commentary

The use of saline water in irrigation has been promulgated over many years [41,42,43] and has been the subject of many investigations [44,45,46]. While saline water might be available in large volumes, it is not, however, necessarily safe to use in all circumstances without careful consideration of the local soil and drainage. Where water containing dissolved NaCl is used, it is important that the soil is sandy with a low clay fraction if the hydraulic conductivity is not to be reduced by irrigation [47,48]. It is also important that deep drainage resulting from leaching does not contaminate non-saline groundwater. However, for countries of the GCC, it is likely that suitable sites with sandy soils are available where little leaching may be required [49]. Nevertheless, it will be necessary to evaluate individually the optimal conditions for growing those species we list in Table 3.
Where halophytes are used for forage or fodder, it is important to recognise that the plant shoots may contain salts and other substances that are detrimental to the health of the animal [50,51,52], but they may be valuable source of minerals and antioxidants [53,54]. Halophytes can be used as part of the diet of ruminants where the animals graze on native vegetation [55] or planted halophytes [56]. In the preparation of fodder, it is important that vegetation from halophytes is combined with other conventional materials [55] in order to reduce salt concentration. It is also important to note that dicotyledonous halophytes generally have higher sodium to potassium ratios than monocotyledonous halophytes [31], making the latter more suitable than dicotyledonous species as animal feed [57].
As we mentioned in the Introduction, the countries of the GCC can be severely affected by dust, which has a detrimental effect on plant growth [58,59]. However, halophytes can be used for the stabilisation of land (https://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/halophytes/, (accessed on 2 March 2022) and [60,61]), although there is, as far as we are aware, no information that is specific to the effect of dust on the growth or photosynthesis of halophytes. Halophytes have, however, been grown successfully as shelter from dust [62] suggesting that they are resistant.
There is a wealth of data on the nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals present in halophytes (see https://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/halophytes/, accessed on 2 March 2022), from which it is clear that the concentration of secondary metabolites can be influenced by the external salt concentration, often increasing, as the external salinity is increased [63,64,65]. Consequently, the development of halophytes as sources of chemicals does require determination of the optimal salinity for production.
Apart from the species we list in Table 3, there are also a few halophytes that have been developed as crops, particularly high-value horticultural crops, including species of Salicornia and Sarcocornia [66,67]. An important halophyte with many uses is Chenopodium quinoa (quinoa) for which there is much recent research on its salt tolerance [68,69]. However, as these crops are for human consumption, their cultivation requires water that may be saline, but without microbial or heavy metal contaminants. For the countries of the GCC, we suggest an initial focus on the species of Haloxylon and Zygophyllum that can be used for land stabilisation [70,71] and the plantations of trees such as Tamarix that can be irrigated with brackish water (7–10 dS/m) from desalinisation plants and produce yields similar to cultivated eucalyptus grown with fresh water [72]. In the longer term, the cultivation of halophytes for their pharmaceutical and nutraceutical contents must be a significant possibility [73,74].

8. Conclusions

The current warming of the globe with impending rises of sea level and continued growth in the human population leads us to conclude that policies are required to tackle agricultural production in the arid countries of the GCC. While the growth of conventional crops on a large scale is not feasible, it is possible to stabilise land and produce fodder using native halophytes. Halophytic species can be irrigated with brackish water where good drainage is available—and where deep drainage does not contaminate aquifers. Land stabilisation can be achieved with halophytes and saline water, as can biomass from trees. In the longer-term, the cultivation of crops of horticultural value is feasible.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, M.J.A.-A.; writing—original draft preparation, M.J.A.-A.; writing—review and editing, M.J.A.-A. and T.J.F. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable for studies not involving humans or animals.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Sources of supporting data are cited in the text with the dates accessed.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Table
Table 1. Aridity and rainfall across the countries of the GCC. The data are taken from the cited papers.
Table 1. Aridity and rainfall across the countries of the GCC. The data are taken from the cited papers.
CountryRainfall (mm)Aridity Index (mm/°C)References
Bahrain813·1[15]
Kuwait14.7–50.21.9https://www.worldweatheronline.com, accessed on 3 November 2021
Oman903.2[16,17]
Qatar5–400.8[18]
KSA92.71.9[19,20]
UAE78
70–130		2.1
2.7		[21,22]
Table
Table 2. Showing the production of some selected salt-tolerant plants during 2019 in the GCC countries, the world, and South East Asia (SEA) (FAOSTAT).
Table 2. Showing the production of some selected salt-tolerant plants during 2019 in the GCC countries, the world, and South East Asia (SEA) (FAOSTAT).
CommodityGCC Production (Tonnes)World Production (Tonnes)SEA Production (Tonnes)
Dates2,380,5169,075,446NA
Spinach336830,107,231241,475
Wheat537,632765,769,635112,014
Barley632,614158,979,610138,921
Lettuce and Chicory19,76429,134,65384,712
Potatoes535,018370,436,5812,395,864
Tomatoes735,403180,766,3291,545,877
Maize79,0001,148,487,29151,980,736
QuinoaNA161,415NA
NA: not available.
Table
Table 3. Halophytes found in the countries of the GCC and their potential uses. The salinity is represented by the electrical conductivities of the soil in the region that plants were growing in as reported in the cited references (Bienertia cycloptera, Haloxylon salicornicum, Prosopis farcta, Suaeda maritima, and S. monoica tolerate higher salinities than those listed here—approximately 40, 40, 34, 68, and 27 dS/m., respectively, according to data in eHALOPH; https://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/halophytes/index.php, accessed on 16 April 2021).
Table 3. Halophytes found in the countries of the GCC and their potential uses. The salinity is represented by the electrical conductivities of the soil in the region that plants were growing in as reported in the cited references (Bienertia cycloptera, Haloxylon salicornicum, Prosopis farcta, Suaeda maritima, and S. monoica tolerate higher salinities than those listed here—approximately 40, 40, 34, 68, and 27 dS/m., respectively, according to data in eHALOPH; https://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/halophytes/index.php, accessed on 16 April 2021).
SpeciesStatePart of Plant UsedEconomic ValuesNatural habitatSalinity
(EC, dS/m)		Refs
Arthrocaulon macrostachyumBahrainShootFood cropCoastal saltmarshes, high salt marshes, saline ponds55–191[75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82]
Atriplex
leucoclada		BahrainShootFodder, forage, grazingSaline rangelands, permanent inland saline and brackish lakes, ponds and pools, coastal dunes and sandy shores83[75,76,83,84,85,86]
Avicennia marinaBahrain, Oman, QatarWhole plant, leavesFishery support, herbal medicine, fodderMarine mud shores, subtropical coasts, arid, hypersaline environment31[3,75,76,87,88,89,90]
Bienertia
cycloptera		QatarLeaves, whole plantForage, salt phyto-
remediation		Arabian deserts, salty water, saline flat10.3[91,92,93]
Conocarpus lancifoliusKuwait, United Arab EmiratesLeaves, whole plantFood additive, antidiabetic activity, windbreak, stabilising sandy soil, landscapingSemiarid land87.5[94,95,96]
Halocnemum strobilaceumBahrainLeaves,
whole plant		Fodder, desalinisationInland and coastal saltmarshes. deltaic wetland36–50[4,75,76,97,98,99,100]
Halodule
uninervis		KuwaitLeaves,
whole plant		Grazing, biomass removal, coastal protectionSubtropical coasts, intertidal areas, coastal lagoons33.5[101,102,103,104,105]
Halopeplis
perfoliata		Saudi ArabiaWhole plantLandscape urban areas, sand dune stabilisation,
soap and glass manufacturing industries		Coastal high marsh, saline habitat, littoral salt marsh49.8[4,106,107,108]
Haloxylon salicornicumKuwaitLeaves,
whole plant		Grazing, sand stabilisation, pasture, fuelArid and Saharan areas, sandy and saline
soils		20.6[109,110]
Juncus rigidus Leaves,
whole plant		Forage, paper industry, bioremediationCoastal salt marshes, marsh and saline areas, littoral salt marshes70.5[111,112,113,114]
Limonium stocksiiOmanFlowersOrnamentalSalt flat, coastal marshes55–191[79,84,115]
Prosopis farctaSaudi ArabiaShoot, leavesFuel, grazing,
folk medicine, reducing agent		Semiarid areas (paleo-sabkhas), nonsaline deserts, saline agricultural lands, aridisols17.6[85,116,117,118,119]
Prosopis pallidaUnited Arab EmiratesWhole plantBiofuelHyperarid climate, arid lands, arid coastal lands with brackish groundwater29.2–35.5[120,121]
Suaeda aegyptiacaBahrain Qatar, Saudi ArabiaLeaves,
whole shoot		Vegetable, forage or fodder, fuel wood, soap and glass industrySaline and nonsaline, Arab Gulf desert, sabkha, saline sandy area, subtropical desert, coastal sandy and rocky shores31[75,107,122,123,124]
Suaeda maritimaBahrainShootsPharmaceutical useSabkhas, sewage, coastal salt flats, tidal wetlands, salt marshes and coastal mudflats13.8[75,76,125,126,127,128]
Suaeda monicaSaudi Arabia, OmanLeavesGrazing, forageMediterranean inland salt steppes, coastal saltmarshes, subtropical desert13.8[129,130,131]
Suaeda
vermiculata		Bahrain, KuwaitLeavesFodder, traditional medicineCoastal lowlands, saline marshes, Arab Gulf deserts76[3,75,76,83,97]
Zygophyllum qatarenseBahrain, Kuwait, QatarShootGrazingCoastal stable sand sheets, non, medium, and highly saline soils; Saharo–Arabian, inland salt flats81.9[4,76,97,132,133,134,135,136,137]
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Al-Azzawi, M.J.; Flowers, T.J. Distribution and Potential Uses of Halophytes within the Gulf Cooperation Council States. Agronomy 2022, 12, 1030. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12051030

AMA Style

Al-Azzawi MJ, Flowers TJ. Distribution and Potential Uses of Halophytes within the Gulf Cooperation Council States. Agronomy. 2022; 12(5):1030. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12051030

Chicago/Turabian Style

Al-Azzawi, Mohammed J., and Timothy J. Flowers. 2022. "Distribution and Potential Uses of Halophytes within the Gulf Cooperation Council States" Agronomy 12, no. 5: 1030. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12051030

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