Halophyte Establishment in Saline Soils

The soil and plant samples were initially collected from the coastal area of Parangipettai, Tamil Nadu, India. The S. portulacastrum was mostly found on the sandy shores of the backwaters (Figure 1). The collected halophyte was successfully established in the soil salinized by paper and pulp mill effluent irrigation at Karur, Tamil Nadu, India. The rhizospheric soil from two soil series, Thulukanur and Vannapatti soil series in the paper mill effluent irrigated area was collected. The samples were collected in sterile plastic bags and transferred to laboratory for further analysis. The organic matter was analyzed by the Walkley-Black method while Electrical Conductivity (EC) and pH were analyzed by the saturated paste extract method (Murtaza et al., 2017 (link)). The physico chemical properties are tabulated in Supplementary Table S3. Soil samples required for the study were collected from the soils of long-term treated paper and pulp mill effluent irrigated area located at 11° 01′24.9″ N and 77° 59′59″ E. Adequate amount of soil was shade dried, large debris was removed and subsequently 10 kg of soil was transferred to perforated pots for secondary evaluation. The pH and EC of the experimental soil were found to be 8.18 and 2.62 dS m⁻¹, respectively (Supplementary Table S3). The Exchangeable Sodium Percentage (ESP) of the soil was 13.54 per cent with an organic carbon content of 0.63 per cent.