Slingram Prediction of Salt Stress in Agricultural Land: Implication for Habitat Biodiversity.

Agricultural lands sustain diverse habitats in California, which are being impacted by escalating salt stress and water shortage. Over 2 Mha farmlands have been already affected by salinization within the State. For the purpose of precise quantification and site-specific management, we utilized a dual dipole Slingram technique to evaluate salinity stress and vegetation potential in an agricultural farm that had adopted conservational water use. The study demonstrated high spatial and temporal resolutions of the measurements that had strong correlation with the groundtruthing data (r² = 0.99 at P<0.05). The salinity structures conformed to the spherical semi-variogram model, and the rhizosphere showed maximum spatial dependence along with the radius of influence extending over 700 m. Raster maps revealed pockets of high density salt zones that induced significant lowering of vegetation growth. Integration of the Slingram and economic data suggested that the vegetation with lower yield-potential had greater cost-efficacy. Overall, this study demonstrated that the Slingram approach could be rapidly and economically utilized for identifying crucial spatial components of habitat bio-diversity analyses and adaptive management. [The contents and findings in this article are solely those of the authors and do not represent any views and policies of their affiliating agencies and institutions.]