Soil salinity is a major soil threat, causing severe environmental problems. Soil salt stress limits N uptake and cotton growth, especially in arid regions. However, the mechanism underlying stress tolerance in cotton plants under different soil salinity levels has not been fully elucidated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the proportion and mechanism of cotton N uptake and transport under salt stress using the ¹⁵N isotope labeling technique. Cotton plants were grown in four undisturbed loamy soils (CK, non-salinity, 4.0 dS m⁻¹). The N transported to cotton from the 0–20 cm soil layer in C1 treatment was higher than from the 40–60 cm layer. Furthermore, the cotton fruit cultivated in C1 exhibited a notably elevated dry matter content compared to those cultivated in the control treatment. As the soil salt stress increased from the control treatment to C1, the cotton stems and fruits demonstrated a gradual enhancement in their N uptake and regulatory capabilities, albeit with a slight decrease observed in the leaves. These findings emphasize that soil salt stress diminishes cotton nitrogen uptake and transport, potentially exacerbating nitrogen pollution in the absence of optimized nitrogen fertilization.

A two-year (2024–2025) field experiment was conducted in southern Xinjiang to alleviate soil compaction and severe salinization in saline–alkali soils and to evaluate the combined effects of tillage depth and subsurface drain spacing on soil improvement. Six treatments were established with three deep tillage depths, 70 cm (W1), 50 cm (W2), and 30 cm (W3), and two subsurface drain spacings, 20 m (S1) and 40 m (S2). Treatment effects on soil water–salt dynamics, soil physical properties and structure, ionic composition, and subsurface drainage and salt removal were analyzed. This study provides mechanistic and practical evidence that coupling deep tillage with subsurface drainage creates a more effective leaching–drainage pathway than either measure alone and enables robust optimization of design parameters (drain spacing × tillage depth) for saline–alkali land improvement in arid regions. Deep tillage in combination with subsurface drainage significantly increased soil profile water content, total porosity, and cumulative subsurface drainage and salt export, all of which reached their maxima under S1W1; it also significantly reduced bulk density, total salinity, and the concentrations of Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Cl⁻, and SO₄²⁻, which reached their minima under S1W1. After two spring irrigation–leaching events (in 2024 and 2025), surface salt accumulation in the soil profile was markedly alleviated, and the mean salinity in the 0–20 cm layer decreased by 45.68% across treatments. The S1W1 treatment achieved the best desalinization performance in both leaching events, with reductions of 41.36% and 44.68%, respectively. Pearson correlation analysis indicated that the desalinization effect was significantly negatively correlated with porosity and significantly positively correlated with bulk density and ionic concentrations. Overall, coupling deep tillage with subsurface drainage effectively reduced soil salinity and harmful ions, improved soil structure, and enhanced drainage-mediated salt removal, with the 70 cm tillage depth combined with a 20 cm drain spacing delivering the best performance.