At the completion of the plenary sessions delegates at the 2nd International Salinity Conference in Adelaide, delegates are well and truly primed for concurrent sessions. Some of the highlights are as follows.

Dr Ken Lawrie - Salinity Mapping and Assessment

Many methods however each local scenario is unique and complex so horses for courses. Good news great advances in the last 5 years mean data can be presented in more meaningful ways.

Dr Don Suarez - USDA: US Salinity Lab

Co-organiser of 1st International Salinity Conference spoke on Irrigation salinity. Irrigated Ag can’t compete with urban sector in a competitive water market. Urban sector does not use much water it degrades it. Tertiary water treatment is most expensive, ag use removes both nutrients and contaminates Therefore reuse of urban water by ag essential.

Dr John Williams - NSW Natural Resources Commissioner

As usual was in the mood to challenge delegates. His mission was to start a revolution to tackle dryland salinity, Dr Williams suggests while we know the basics of salinity processes we may not have acknowledged the complexity of local systems . The Wentworth Group member proposed a suite of industries based on deep rooted perennial that address the causes of dryland salinity while generating wealth and called for the support of regional bodies.

Dr Tom Hatton - CSIRO

” Salinity started as a local issue in 1910″ Dr Hatton told the conference that salinity is not high on the Australian political agenda in comparison to pressing issues of water scarcity and climate change. 1)Water resources are fully allocated. 2) Availability of Water likely to decline. 3) while demand is increasing. $42 B is Govt response to water scarcity while esimate of affect of salinity only $1B/year. Therefore salinity is still a local issue.

Max Finlayson - Charles Sturt University

Reminded us all of the social dimension of managing salinity with a discussion of the “glocalisation” (think global act local) approach. His thesis is that for all the rhetoric that local people across the globe are regularly disconnected and dis-empowered.

Concurrent Sessions

For the concurrent sessions I attended I chose to attend the session “Plant Responses - Forage and Amenity PLants

Ken Marcum - Arizona State University

Outlined trials on salt tolerant landscaping (amenity) plants in his home territory of Arizona. Was a little surprise to hear one of the plants he is trailing is Lantana Montevidsis or as we call it in the Burnett “Creeping Lantana”. He indicate that it was difficult to define salt tolerance of species. The good news is he has found an array of species that are salt tolerant ground covers which can significantly reduce the use of freshwater for urban use.

Ghazi Abu Rumman

Spoke about a 2 year field study in Western Australia using saline irrigation water on 4 different turf species.

Kikuya used the most Sodium followed by Paspalum when irrigated with 13dSm-1 irrigation water

Mary Jane - Rodgers

Salinity and water logging tolerance amongst Trifolium species. Was looking for species which would be moderately salt and water logging tolerant, particularly legumes which are typically less tolerant than some grass species. The legumes were attractive because of their ability to fix nitrogen, high protein, and palatability. Species that exclude Na and Cl while maintaining a ionic balance. After greenhouse trials no Trifolium species really stood out for both salt and water-logging tolerance. Melilotus siculus and Burr Medic show some promise and further work will continue.

Phillip Nichols

How salinity affects germination of annual pasture species. No species were able to restrict uptake of Sodium. Hard seed coat seems to protect seeds from saline conditions. Melilotus siculus performed the best Medicago polymorpha ran second. Trifolium michelianum and Trifolium tomentosum were 2 trial species that performed OK, Trifolium suberranum was unsatisfactory under all conditions. Ongoing work will continue with Melilotus siculus and Medicago polymorpha.

Natasha Teakle

Phd research Western Australia. Use of perrenial pasutre to make saline and waterlogged land. Lotus tenuis perennial Argentina good grazing other trial species Lotus corniculatus (grown in East Coast Aust) Started with greenhouse trial. Lotus tenuis performing well in saline and waterlogging. Lotus tenuis excludes Na and Cl under both waterlogged and under water logged conditions. because of increased root aeration lower transportation of Na and Cl to the shoots. Now looking at the generic traits that limit transportation of Na and Cl to shoots.

Richard George

Saline Groundwater Use by lucerne and biomass production in relation to groundwater salinity. Groundwater 5000 to 10 000mg/L and 1 to 2 metres deep. Sardi 10 (innoculated) was used for the trials, simulated rainfall 350mm/year(consistent with Jacup lucerne district). Saline ground water use decrease as salinity deceased. At low salinity Lucerne will used significant amounts of groundwater at 13 000mg/L Lucerne used about a third of lower levels of salinity. Trial will continue for 3 years.

Dean Power is attending the 2nd International Salinity Conference courtesy of support by BMRG and BCCA.