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Salting the earth, or sowing with salt, is the ritual of spreading salt on the sites of cities razed by conquerors. [1] [2] It originated as a curse on re-inhabitation in the ancient Near East and became a well-established folkloric motif in the Middle Ages. [3] The best-known example is the salting of Shechem as narrated in the Biblical Book ...
where Ci is the salt concentration of the irrigation water, Cc is the salt concentration of the capillary rise, equal to the salt concentration of the upper part of the groundwater body, Fc is the fraction of the total evaporation transpired by plants, Ce is the salt concentration of the water taken up by the plant roots, Cp is the salt ...
Humus refers to organic matter that has been decomposed by soil microflora and fauna to the point where it is resistant to further breakdown. Humus usually constitutes only five percent of the soil or less by volume, but it is an essential source of nutrients and adds important textural qualities crucial to soil health and plant growth. [158]
Human practices can increase the salinity of soils by the addition of salts in irrigation water. Proper irrigation management can prevent salt accumulation by providing adequate drainage water to leach added salts from the soil. Disrupting drainage patterns that provide leaching can also result in salt accumulations.
The change in the groundwater level led to high salt concentrations in the water table. The continuous high level of the water table led to soil salination. Use of humic acids may prevent excess salination, especially given excessive irrigation. [16] Humic acids can fix both anions and cations and eliminate them from root zones. [citation needed]
An ancient practice in time of war was salting the earth: scattering salt around in a defeated city to prevent plant growth. The Bible tells the story of King Abimelech who was ordered by God to do this at Shechem , [ 18 ] and various texts claim that the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus Africanus ploughed over and sowed the city of Carthage ...
Establishing salt-tolerant plants can improve salt discharge rates and improve soil health. Improvements undertaken at a catchment scale bring many benefits, not the least of which is providing for increased agricultural and associated regional productivity – using water for production that otherwise would contribute to an environmental problem.
Nitrogen is a common element in nature and an essential plant nutrient. Approximately 78% of Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen (N 2). The strong bond between the atoms of N 2 makes this gas quite inert and not directly usable by plants and animals. As nitrogen naturally cycles through the air, water and soil it undergoes various chemical and ...