Soil Salinity in South Eastern Australia

Soil Salinity in South Eastern Australia

Soil salinity is one of the nation’s greatest problems and the danger it poses to Australia’s agricultural industry is rising. Salinity occurs in two main forms; primary and secondary. The former occurs naturally throughout the world in arid climates. According to the Western Australian department of agriculture, 29 million hectares of Australian land are effected by natural salinity. This is generally not a problem as environments are able to adapt to natural salinity occurring.
Secondary Salinity, on the other hand, is a result of a man-induced “change in the water balance, leading to more water in the soil and a rising watertable towards the surface”.
In south-eastern Australia, soil salt exists as a consequence of two main geological occurrences. One, from the breakdown of parent rock; the process of which takes thousands of years. The other is in from wind blown salt, predominantly in the form of rain...