This is the compendium of SALINITY-L digests for June 1996.
It was prepared from the daily digest mailings. Some digests
may be missing, because occasional mailings are lost en route.
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 <------------------------------>
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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 <------------------------------>
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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 <------------------------------>
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