The accumulation of salt in arable lands is a source of significant abiotic stress, contributing to a 10% decline in the world’s total arable lands and threatening food productivity and the sustainability of agriculture. About 76 million hectares of productive land are estimated to have been affected by human-induced salinization such as extreme salt deposits in soil, which are mainly caused by the actions of humans. For instance, continued irrigation and the frequent use of chemical fertilizers need to be understood. To ensure food availability, it is essential to improve upon traditional farming methods using current technologies to facilitate the reclamation of saline-affected arable lands to achieve high and sustainable food production. This review details current innovative strategies such as the modification of metabolic pathways, manipulation of antioxidant pathways, genetic engineering, RNA interference technology, engineered nanoparticles, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), organic amendments, and trace elements for improving saline marginal lands. These strategies were identified to have contributed to the improvement of plants salinity tolerance in diverse ways. For instance, the accumulation of plant metabolites such as amino acids, sugars, polyols, organic acids, saponins, anthocyanins, polyphenols, and tannins detoxify plants and play crucial roles in mitigating the detrimental effects of oxidative damage posed by salinity stress. Multiple plant miRNAs encoding the up- and down-regulation of single- and multi-ion transporters have been engineered in plant species to enhance salt tolerance. Nanomaterials and plant root system colonized by arbuscular mycorrhizal increase water uptake, photosynthetic efficiency, and biomass allocation in plants exposed to saline stress by excluding 65 percent of the Na⁺ uptake and enhancing K⁺ uptake by 84.21 percent. Organic amendments and trace elements reduced salinity concentrations by 22 percent and improved growth by up to 84 percent in maize subjected to salinity stress. This study also discusses how researchers can use these strategies to improve plants growth, development, and survival in saline soil conditions to enhance the productivity and sustainability of agriculture. The strategies discussed in this study have also proven to be promising approaches for developing salinity stress tolerance strategies for plants to increase agricultural productivity and sustainability.

Spatio-temporal changes to the eco-environmental quality index (EQI) and determination of their spatial differentiation characteristics are important bases for land management and ecological environment protection. This study evaluates the changes in EQI and its spatial distribution characteristics with reference to the three dominant functions of land use, namely “production-ecology-living” (PEL), based on the interpretation of land use remote sensing data in 2000, 2010 and 2018. The spatial diversity of ecological environment quality and its driving factors were quantitatively analyzed by gravity center transfer, cold and hot spot analysis, and the GeoDetector model. The results showed that: (1) The transformation of land in Ningxia from 2000 to 2018 mainly manifested by the increase in industrial and mining production land (IMPL), urban living land (ULL) and rural living land (RLL), and the decrease of grassland ecological land (GEL), especially in the north of Ningxia. (2) The ecological environment quality decreased slightly during the research period, but there was an improvement trend in the north. High environment quality values were concentrated in the Liupan Mountain area in the south of Ningxia, while the low values were mainly in the desert areas of Shapotou County and Zhongning County in the west. (3) The interaction between land use intensity and topographic factors led to spatial change in EQI in the research area. Effects of land use intensity are the dominant factor, reflecting the degree of impact of human activities on natural ecosystems. Our results suggest that topographic factors and human disturbances should be fully taken into account in future land and spatial development decisions to minimize human-ecological conflicts.

Straw return can improve soil quality and change the mobility and bioavailability of pollutants in soil. Elevated cadmium (Cd) contents in farmland soils were often reported. However, the impacts of straw-derived dissolved organic matter (DOM) on Cd speciation in soil remain poorly understood. In this study, the effects of straw return and moisture condition on temporal changes of DOM composition and Cd speciation in farmland soils were explored through a laboratory incubation experiment. The humified components of DOM were negatively correlated with exchangeable, carbonate-bound, and Fe-Mn oxide-bound Cd (p < 0.01), while its protein-like component was negatively correlated with residual Cd (p < 0.01). It was found that selected fluorescence parameters could be used to predict temporal changes of Cd geochemical fractions. Straw addition led to increases in soil DOM content during the first three days of the incubation. Flooding should be avoided in the first three days following the straw application to reduce the risk of DOM-facilitated Cd mobilization.