Saline soils in in Italy: distribution, ecological processes and socioeconomic issues

Abstract

Soils are crucial for crop production and for the major ecosystem services. They preserve and sustain life. Salinity is one of the main soil threats that reduce soil fertility and affect the crop production. In recent times, a great attention has been paid to the general shortage of arable land, and to the increasing demand for ecological restoration of areas affected by secondary salinization processes. Microorganisms in these habitats may share a strategy, may have developed multiple adaptations for maintaining populations, and cope eventually to extreme conditions by altruistic or cooperative behavior for maintaining their population active. The understanding and the knowledge of the composition and distribution of microorganisms in natural habitats can be interesting for ecological reasons and it is important to develop new restoration strategy of salt-affected soils.