Crop Improvement and Cultivation in Saline-Alkali Soils

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil and Plant Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 900

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Changchun 130102, China
Interests: saline-alkali soil improvement; soil nutrient management; plant physiology under stresses; rice cultivation

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Changchun 130102, China
Interests: physiological and molecular mechanism of halophytes; identification of halophytes; crop development and saline-alkali tolerance; plant hormones
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soil salinization and alkalization have become an important abiotic stress affecting soil fertility and crop yields, and over 6% of soil in the world and around 20% of the area used for agriculture are subjected to salinity problems. It is necessary to improve the utilization rate of salt-affected soils and crop yield in order to solve the problem of more than 400 million people facing chronic hunger globally. Scientific agricultural management methods play a vital role in crop productivity under saline-alkali conditions. This Special Issue aims to provide a platform for the discussion of the studies regarding crop improvement and cultivation under saline-alkali conditions in terms of saline-alkali-tolerant crop varieties, crop physiology, and the improvement of soil, scientific fertilization, and cultivation for crop improvement in saline-alkali conditions. We welcome authors to present original studies and review articles that will promote development in the field. We hope that the Special Issue proposes techniques, directions, strategies, and solutions that will promote soil fertility and crop productivity in saline-alkali soils.

Prof. Dr. Lihua Huang
Prof. Dr. Weiqiang Li
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • crop varieties
  • saline-alkali
  • crop physiology
  • soil improvement
  • fertilization

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 2901 KiB  
Article
Comparative Study of Back-Propagation Artificial Neural Network Models for Predicting Salinity Parameters Based on Spectroscopy Under Different Surface Conditions of Soda Saline–Alkali Soils
by Yating Jing, Xuelin You, Mingxuan Lu, Zhuopeng Zhang, Xiaozhen Liu and Jianhua Ren
Agronomy 2024, 14(10), 2407; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14102407 - 17 Oct 2024
Viewed by 312
Abstract
Soil salinization typically exerts a highly negative influence on soil productivity, crop yields, and ecosystem balance. As a typical region afflicted by soil salinization, the soda saline–alkali soils in the Songnen Plain of China demonstrate a clear cracking phenomena. Nevertheless, the overall spectral [...] Read more.
Soil salinization typically exerts a highly negative influence on soil productivity, crop yields, and ecosystem balance. As a typical region afflicted by soil salinization, the soda saline–alkali soils in the Songnen Plain of China demonstrate a clear cracking phenomena. Nevertheless, the overall spectral response to the cracked soil surface has scarcely been studied. This study intends to study the impact of salt parameters on the soil cracking process and enhance the spectral measurement method used for cracked salt-affected soil. To accomplish this goal, a controlled desiccation cracking experiment was carried out on saline soil samples. A gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) was calculated for the contrast (CON) texture feature to measure the extent of cracking in the dried soil samples. Additionally, spectroscopy measurements were conducted under different surface conditions. Principal component analysis (PCA) was subsequently performed to downscale the spectral data for band integration. Subsequently, the prediction accuracy of back-propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN) models developed from the principal components of spectral reflectance was compared for different salt parameters. The results reveal that salt content is the dominant factor determining the cracking process in salt-affected soils, and that cracked soil samples had the highest model prediction accuracy for different salt parameters rather than uncracked blocks and 2 mm comparison soil samples. Furthermore, BP-ANN prediction models combining spectral response and CON were further developed, which can significantly enhance the prediction accuracy of different salt parameters with R2 values of 0.93, 0.91, and 0.74 and a ratio of prediction deviation (RPD) of 3.68, 3.26, and 1.72 for soil salinity, electrical conductivity (EC), and pH, respectively. These findings provide valuable insights into the cracking mechanism in salt-affected soils, thereby advancing the field of hyperspectral remote sensing for monitoring soil salinization. Furthermore, this study also aids in enhancing the design of spectral measurements for saline–alkali soils and is also helpful for local soil remediation with supporting data. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Improvement and Cultivation in Saline-Alkali Soils)
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