Protection and Utilization of Saline-Alkali Land Resources in the Yellow River Basin
The Yellow River Basin has a wide distribution of saline-alkali land with high salinity,cover-ing an area of approximate 206.44×104 hm2.The saline-alkali areas in the upper reaches of the Yellow River are mainly distributed in the Hetao Plain,the Loess Plateau and the Ordos Plateau.In the middle reaches,they are mainly distributed in three alluvial plains including the Yinchuan Plain,and the Houtao and Zhongtan plain in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.In the lower reaches,they are mainly distributed in the Yellow River irrigation areas in Henan and Shandong provinces as well as the saline-alkali soils along the Bohai Sea coast of the Yellow River Delta.This has caused serious land degradation and agricultural production problems.Aimed to explore the current status and conservation and utilization strategies of saline-alkali land resources in the Yellow River Basin,the article overviewed the characteristics of saline-alkali land resources in the Yellow River Basin including distribution,soil salinity properties and causes of formation,deeply analyzed the devel-opment and utilization status of saline-alkali land in the upper,middle and lower reaches of the basin,as well as in the delta region,and proposed a set of conservation and utilization strategies for different types of saline-alkali land,hoping to provide theoretical and technical supports for the sustainable utilization of saline-alkali land resources in the Yellow River Basin.
Yellow River BasinSaline-alkali landConservation and utilizationSoil improvementStrategies