Inhibiting soil and water loss in a saline soil through cyanobacterization

Soil salinity is one of the essential factors of soil degradation and erosion in arid and semiarid regions, seriously limiting sustainable development. New technologies in controlling and restoring saline soils have to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In the same vein, despite the approved role of biological amendments in controlling soil and water loss, the inoculation of soil cyanobacteria to reduce soil degradation in saline soils has yet to be considered. For this purpose, the studied soil was collected from the Incheboron Area in Northeast Golestan Province, Iran, due to saline and sodium soil being sensitive to water erosion and unstable ecological conditions. The experiments were set up in 0.5 × 0.5-m small erosion plots with soil having different salinities and slopes in the Rain and Erosion Simulation Laboratory of Tarbiat Modares University, Iran. The treated plots with endemic cyanobacteria and untreated (control) plots were compared after eight weeks under simulated rain conditions with an intensity of about 70 mm h⁻¹ lasting for 30 min. The results of the research showed that the runoff volume resulted from the simulated rainfall in the plots with low salinity and 10 % slope and high salinity and 5 % slope inoculated by cyanobacteria were 54.60 and 83.32 % less than untreated plots, respectively. Soil loss was also significantly inhibited (p < 0.001) by seven and 16 times compared to the control treatment. In other words, the treatment of cyanobacteria inoculation on soil with high salinity and low slope was about eight times more effective than that of soil with low salinity and higher slope. Therefore, soil cyanobacteria inoculation can be considered an adequate soil and water conservation strategy in the saline region.