Soil salinization in drylands: Measure, monitor, and manage

Abstract

Soil salinization poses a critical threat to global agricultural productivity, ecosystem resilience, and regional resource sustainability. Primary and secondary salinization processes—driven by natural and anthropogenic factors—are intensifying under climate change and unsustainable land-use practices, jeopardizing food security and soil health in drylands. This viewpoint article synthesizes global research on the mechanisms governing soil salinization in drylands, evaluates spatial–temporal drivers of salt accumulation, and critically assesses advances in measuring, monitoring, and managing strategies. Emerging technologies are highlighted, including accurate monitoring using multi-source data fusion, advanced modeling techniques and multiscale full-cycle soil salinity simulation through digital twin technology, and integrated approaches combining hydraulic engineering, chemistry, biology, ecology, and nature-based solutions (NBS) to address soil salinization. Salinization management is a global priority for achieving SDG2. Integrating Earth’s Critical Zone framework reveals salinization’s cascading impacts on agroecosystems, urging synergistic adoption of nature-based solutions and precision agriculture. We emphasize sensor-driven soil health monitoring, salt-tolerant crop breeding, and policy frameworks that incentivize circular resource systems. Shifting from soil amelioration to salt-tolerant germplasm innovation, supported by multidisciplinary synergies, represents a strategically crucial pathway for transforming saline-alkali soils into climate-resilient agricultural assets, thereby securing national food security.