SALINITY-L: 199606XX
is the compilation of discussion during Jun 96
via AB4EL Web Digests @ SunSITE
>From root@crcnis1.unl.edu Wed Jun 5 08:13 EDT 1996
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1996 07:02:00 -0500
Message-Id: <199606051202.AA05286@crcnis1.unl.edu>
Subject: SALINITY-L digest 63
Contents:
Salt Tolerant Sunflowers (Merriott@aol.com)
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1996 07:58:23 -0400
From: Merriott@aol.com
Subject: Salt Tolerant Sunflowers
I saw a short piece on the local farm report this morning that researchers
are working on cross-breeding salt tolerant wild sunflowers (I believe from
New Mexico) with commercially grown varieties. The hope was that new salt
tolerant hybrids would be available by the end of this decade. Is anyone on
the list working on this project or with more knowledge about this that could
tell us more?
Randall Merriott
Abernathy, Texas
End of Digest
>From root@crcnis1.unl.edu Thu Jun 6 08:18 EDT 1996
Date: Thu, 6 Jun 1996 07:02:54 -0500
Message-Id: <199606061202.AA29658@crcnis1.unl.edu>
Subject: SALINITY-L digest 64
Contents:
Position Announcement (rama@brcsun0.tamu.edu (Ramanarayanan Tharacad))
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1996 09:37:12 -0500
From: rama@brcsun0.tamu.edu (Ramanarayanan Tharacad)
Subject: Position Announcement
******** POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT ********
Title: Research Scientist
Employer: Texas Agricultural Experiment Station
Blackland Research Center
808 East Blackland Road
Temple, TX 76502
Salary: Salary will be commensurate with experience and qualifications
Scope: Hydrologic and water quality modeling
Responsibilities: The incumbent will work with a team of scientists
involved in a hydrologic modeling project that is using a farm-scale
simulation model and a basin scale hydrologic/water quality model
for the Lake Waco/Bosque River Basin.
Supervision: The incumbent will be supervised by Dr. William Dugas at the
Blackland Research Center.
Qualifications: The incumbent must have a Ph.D. in agricultural, civil or
environmental engineering, a strong background in modeling crops and
hydrology, an understanding of a GIS (preferably GRASS), and good
programming capability in C and/or FORTRAN.
Application Procedure: Applications will be accepted until this position is
filled. Interested persons should submit a letter of application, resume,
and names of at least three references to:
Dr. William A. Dugas
Texas Agricultural Experiment Station
Blackland Research Center
808 E. Blackland Road
Temple, Texas 76502
e-mail: dugas@brcsun0.tamu.edu
Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer
End of Digest
>From root@crcnis1.unl.edu Mon Jun 17 17:31 EDT 1996
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1996 02:27:47 -0500
Message-Id: <199606170727.AA01550@crcnis1.unl.edu>
Subject: SALINITY-L digest 65
Contents:
(yarrac@theReef.com.au (YarraCare))
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1996 17:33:22 +1000 (EST)
From: yarrac@theReef.com.au (YarraCare)
Subject:
Hello my name is Lachlan Milne. I am employed as Salinity Project officer
with the Department of Natural Resourses and Environment of the Victorian
State Government in Australia. I hold a Bachelor of Social Science
(Socio-Environmental Assessment and Policy, Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology). I have also had considerable experience in Dryland
agriculture, revegetation work and management and identification of remnant
vegetation.
Salinity is a huge problem in much of Australia as many will probably be
aware. Huge areas of land in the Murray-Darling River Basin are effected,
mainly due to effects of irrigation raising ground water. This basin is the
source of most of Australia's irrigated agricultural output, stretching from
Queensland, New Sout Wales, Victoria to the sea in South Australia.
Also large areas of land are effected by 'Dryland Salinity' which is belived
to be caused by the clearing of substantial areas of trees and other deep
rooted vegetation in undulating country and plains adjacent to hills.. The
removal of this vegetation allows water to infiltrate to the watertable,
raising it over a number of years. Eventually ground water can reaches the
surface in drainage lines, streams and 'break of slope' areas (Discharge
sites). Given the right conditions salt can accumulate in surface soil and
eventually kills vegetation. Such sites become prone to erosion, streams
become polluted with salt and so on.
In Australia Discharge sites are easily identified by the presence of salt
tolerent indicator plants or salt scalds. Dryland salinity has become the
target of more technical research methodologies also, as methods of
monitoring and controlling groundwater are developed. Observation bores are
currently being widely established to monitor ground water trends, so as to
be able to determine that ground water is rising and whether more land will
become salt effected. Some research indicates that periods of over 100
years are involved in the development of some discharge sites. Since much
of the clearing occurred in Australia this century, we may be sitting on a
salt time bomb.
I am employed to map existing discharge sites in the Yarra River Catchment.
The Yarra River is flows through Melbourne, Australia's second largest city.
It is the source of most of our water supply and is a cultural and physical
resource for almost 3 million people. Salinity is less severe in this
catchment than in others, mainly due to higher rainfall levels, salt
therefore is flushed through the Yarra River system relatively quickly.
Vegetation is currently only being damaged by salt in localised areas,
most of which have been identified.
However we are concerned that the river is having to deal with an increased
salt load that poses threats to an already degraded aquatic ecosystem. We
are also concerned that the levels of salt are damaging soil structure
promoting the degradation of stream banks where ground water is entering
streams. This soil structure decline is confirmed at discharge sites on
plains and at break of slope points; the soil is almost a fine paste when
wet, and were vegetation is lost, severe erosion occurs that is difficult to
halt. (Often land managers are unaware of the presence of salt and
therefore do not manage these sites adequately).
As rising ground water is believed to be the cause of salinity in Australia,
bores are currently the most cost effective way to monitor groundwater
levels. Compared to other areas, the Yarra Catchment, only six observation
bores have been established, so we have virtually no idea if ground water is
rising a a rate that will see discharge site increase in number or area.
This is a brief over view of salinity in the are I am working. I am
interested to see if other parts of the world have been faced with similar
sorts of salinity and what sorts of measures are being taken to monitor,
control and prevent dryland salinity. I am interested in comparing soil
types that may be prone to salting and also research into the ways salt
damages soil structure.
I take an interpretive approach to identification of salinity, using salt
indicator plants and geology maps, as well as Electro conductivity readings
of streams and creeks to narrow down sources of saline water. The absence
of bores is a real problem I would like to rectify, however despite
appearences, our government and Australians in general don't care much about
achieving sustainable land use yet, so the funding isn't available.
Australia has been dealing with salinity for 30 years so there is
considerable experience and information that is available here. I can
probably offer some assistance to people interested finding out more abouty
what we may have to offer.
Lachlan Milne
yarrac@theReef.Com.au
End of Digest
Prepared by Steve Modena, AB4EL
Suggestions and comments to: modena@SunSITE.unc.edu