Downsanup Down Underground NewsSpecial Salisbury Park Salinity EditionThis is Albert Annelid reporting. As a serious underground earthworm reporter it is my duty to tell the world about the curse of salt. My wonderful underground home gets more and more salty every day and this spells disaster for us all. Why? you may ask. Well my good reporter friends from Salisbury Park Primary School in South Australia have researched the subject and this is what they've found. SPECIAL NEWS UPDATE: ALBERT ANNELID DISCOVERS STAR REPORTER! A star reporter named Sarah Dowling was recently discovered at Salisbury Park Primary School. Her research into salinity paints a very scary picture - the big question is, what are we all going to do about it? How will city people cope with salty drinking water and roads ruined by salt? It's certainly something we all need to think about. Thanks also to M. Lemon for telling us all about the very salty Lake Eyre Basin and to A. Stone for a great set of pictures. Click on the articles below to read them in full Creeping Salt Threatens Australia Why Do We Have Salty Soil? What is Salinity? Where has the Salt Come From and What Can We Do About It? Answers to Some Questions About Salinity How Can We Use More Of Our Ground Water? How Have People Created the Salinity Problem in Australia Salt Threatens Murray-Darling Basin Salinity Summarised An Extreme Example of Salty Soil Salinity with Pictures Creeping Salt Threatens Australiaby Sarah Dowling Salinity is measured as the total concentration of water-soluble salts in water and soil. About 2.5 million hectares of land in Australia is affected by salt, and this is increasing. All of Australia is affected, including the Murray River. By the year 2030, the Murray River's water will be too salty to drink! Recent figures show that 260,000 hectares in Victoria may suffer from dryland or irrigation salinity. In Western Australia, one of the worst affected states, about 1.8 million hectares are affected, and this is increasing by the size of a football field hour by hour. This works out at 24 football fields per day! Another example of salinity is in the Lake Eyre Basin. Over millions of years, salty water from Queensland has been washed into the Lake Eyre Basin. When the water has evaported, the salt has been left there. Resulting from that, over millions of years, a thick crust of salt has built up so much that it has covered the entire basin. Salinity even affects roads. Up to 30% of roadways are affected by salinity and can cost up to $1 million (that's right, $1 million) per kilometre to fix. To fix the problem people need to lower the water table. To do that you need to plant deep-rooted plants such as trees and perennial pasture plants such as lucerne, phalaris and cocksfoot.
Why Do We Have Salty Soil?by Danielle and Cerys We are here to tell you about the salty world of salt. We will be your hosts for this afternoon anyway. We will tell you what we know about the salinity in this salty world. Oh, don't forget, we have to tell you our names before we start. We are Danielle and Cerys. Let us begin now shall we? Salt in Soil is a big problem for Australia. About 2.5 million hectares of land in Australia is damaged by salt and this is growing bigger every day. In South Australia people cannot drink the water because it is too salty. How will Australia cope as salt affects our lives more and more? As the salt levels in our soil get bigger, seeds and crops will die and there will not be enough food for life on the planet.
What is Salinity?by Natalie Kate Lila Petrou Salinity is a measure of salt in the ground. An extreme example of salt is in Lake Eyre Basin. After millions of years the salt has built up leaving a thick crust that covers the whole lake. Something like this has been happening in some soils of Australia.
Where Has the Salt Come From and What Can We Do About It?by Kate and Leanne Salt is carried onto land from the ocean by strong winds and the rainfall process and it gets soaked into the ground water. If there are not enough trees to soak up the ground water, the water rises. When the water evaporates from the surface of the soil, the salt is left behind. When it rains again the salt sinks into the ground and goes into the water table making it more and more salty. Some soil has formed on ancient marine sediments and they contain lots of salt. We can stop the problem by planting more trees (preferably trees with deep roots). It will take some time for the problem of salinity to disappear but if it is fixed we will have a better environment for animals and humans. To improve the situation we can lower the water table, plant more trees which have deep roots or plant plants such as lucerne, phalaris and cocksfoot. Some people who live in the city and are concerned about the salinity levels might grow trees that the farmers can grow on their farms.
Answers to Some Questions About Salinityby Sarah Russell Salinity is a major problem in Australia. Here are some answers to some questions. 1) Why do we have salty soil? We have salty soil because people keep clearing the native vegetation. 2) Where did the salt come from? The salt gets blown from the ocean onto the soil. 3) What can we do to improve the situation? To improve the situation we can plant more deep-rooted plants and more native plants. 4) How will Australians cope as salt affects our lives more and more? Australians will not cope very well because the water will get salty and the plants will die. If the plants die there will hardly be any food for us to eat.
How Can We Use More of Our Ground Water?by Kristie Healthy, highly productive crops use more water. We can also plant more trees to use more ground water.
How Have People Created the Salinity Problem in Australia?by Christian, Armand and Stuart Humans have been cutting down large trees and planting plants with shallow roots. This has made the water table rise. When a saline water table rises to within 1-2 metres of the soil surface, salts are concentrated at the surface by evaporation. When it rains next, the salt is washed into the rivers. When we water our crops with river water, the irrigated land becomes salty.
Salt Threatens the Murray-Darling Basinby Stuart Irrigated areas are particularly prone to salinity. The value of Australia's irrigated agriculture is $6 billion each year, 25% of the nation's total agricultural production. The largest irrigated area in Australia is in the southern Murray-Darling Basin, where irrigation has been practised for 100 years. Consultants estimate that up to 20% of the area will become unproductive through salinity and , in addition, the production on a similar area will be reduced unless changes in management practices take place.
Salinity Summarisedby Ryan Paget, Michael Lindsell and Albert Annelid Salinity is one of the biggest problems in Australia. It affects about 30% of Australia's agricultural land and was caused by clearing our native vegetation. The salt originally comes from the ocean. It gets swept inland by wind and rainfall. It lands in the soil and gets washed down into the water-table. Australian native trees keep the water-table deep underground, but when they are cleared the salty water rises. The more native Australian trees that get cleared the saltier the soil gets. To help stop the salt we need to plant more deep rooted plants like native trees. We need to stop the salinity, before it wrecks all of Australia.
An Extreme Example of Salty Soilby M. Lemon Yes, I can write an article about salinity for Downsanup Downs Underground News! Salinity is a measure of the total concentration of water soluble salts in water and soil. An extreme example of a very salty soil is found in the Lake Eyre Basin. For millions of years, water has come down from the river flats of Queensland and washed into the lakes basin. The water evaporated leaving salty reidues behind. No one knew how to stop it, and after millions of years there is a thick crust of salt over the entire basin. Luckily not all soils are as salty as this. The solution is to lower the water table and to plant lots more deep rooted trees in the country and also in the cities. If we do not do anything about it there will be lots of big and little piles of salt every where.
Salinityby A. Stone Salinity is a big problem in Australia. There is about 2.5 millon hectares in Australia that is salt. It's damaging plants, buildings, bridges, pipelines and roads. Around 20% of water that's surfaced is too salty to drink.
The salt comes from the sea and into the soil by the wind blowing it. We could plant more trees so the salt goes onto the trees and not the soil. If we don't do this Australia might be in ruins. Buildings might fall, so will roads and bridges. So let's save Australia. The End |
Last updated 02 Nov 2004 14:16
Location: http://www.clima.uwa.edu.au/page/1051
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