Soil salinity and sodicity are serious environmental hazards, with the potential to limit agricultural production and cause destructive soil degradation. These concerns are especially high in dry areas, which often rely on saline and sodic irrigation water to support agriculture. To assess long‐term soil degradation risk, we introduce the Salt of the Earth (SOTE) model, which describes the dynamics of soil water content, salinity, and sodicity, as driven by irrigation and rainfall. The SOTE model incorporates how changes in salinity and sodicity affect saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, K_s, on a soil‐specific basis. The model was successfully validated against results from a multiyear lysimeter experiment involving different irrigation water qualities and precipitation. We evaluated the impact of shorter rainy seasons on the dynamics of soil degradation in a Mediterranean climate. Critical degradation risk, indicated by reductions in K_s greater than 20%, increased from 0% to 3% when the rainy season was shortened from 130 to 80 days. Alarmingly, when irreversible degradation is allowed for, overall risk increases to 68%. Assessing the effect of irrigation water on different soils textures, we found that while greater clay fractions are usually more susceptible to dispersion, accurate risk assessment hinges on soil water dynamics. SOTE is amenable to large‐ensemble simulations of stochastic climatic conditions, for which trends in the statistics of salinization and soil degradation can be identified. As such, SOTE can be a useful land management tool, allowing planners to understand the risk of long‐term soil degradation given irrigation practices, soil qualities, and climate conditions.

中文翻译：

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通过盐度和盐度的SOTE模型评估的土壤退化风险

土壤盐分和碱度是严重的环境危害，有可能限制农业生产并造成破坏性的土壤退化。这些担忧在干旱地区尤为严重，因为干旱地区经常依靠盐水和苏打水来支持农业。为了评估长期的土壤退化风险，我们引入了地球盐（SOTE）模型，该模型描述了在灌溉和降雨的驱动下土壤水分，盐度和碱度的动态变化。SOTE模型结合了盐度和碱度的变化如何影响饱和土壤导水率K _s，具体取决于土壤。该模型已针对多年的溶渗仪实验结果成功验证，该实验涉及不同的灌溉水质和降水量。我们评估了较短的雨季对地中海气候中土壤退化动态的影响。临界降解风险，以K _s的减少表示大于20％，当雨季从130天缩短到80天时，从0％增加到3％。令人震惊的是，当允许不可逆的降解时，总风险增加到68％。在评估灌溉水对不同土壤质地的影响时，我们发现虽然粘土含量较大通常更易于分散，但准确的风险评估取决于土壤水动力学。SOTE适合于随机气候条件的大集合模拟，由此可以确定盐碱化和土壤退化的统计趋势。因此，SOTE可以成为有用的土地管理工具，使计划人员可以了解在灌溉实践，土壤质量和气候条件下长期土壤退化的风险。