Salt, a chemical compound with the formula NaCl, is one of those responsible for the salinity of the ocean as well as the extracellular fluid of some organisms. However, it is also responsible for the death of many plants by absorbing their essential nutrients such as potassium, calcium and magnesium.
So how can plants survive if more than 97 percent of Earth’s water is salty? Of the 400,000 species of plants around the world, 2,600 feed on seawater. Among them are the halophytes, which mean «salt plants», which are in contact with salt water through their roots in mangroves, marshes and swamps and beaches.
So, this species can become the key to the control of natural resources. According to Mark Anderson, an expert in biology and technology:
Between rising sea levels, droughts and floods, the area of fresh water available for conventional agriculture is shrinking rapidly. One sixth of the world’s populations base their lives on Eurasian rivers, whose origins are from the Himalayan glaciers, which are disappearing due to climate change.
[…] With such limited fertile land and reduced freshwater supplies, conventional biofuel crops have to fight for spaces for their own food and water. In both cases, we are running out of fertile land.
Then the halophytes enter. Edward Glen, an environmental scientist at the University of Arizona, sees them as an effective way to address climate change. Deforestation generates a whopping 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions (exceeding the total carbon emissions from cars, trucks, ships, and planes worldwide), and most of the logging is intended to create spaces for freshwater agriculture. “If you could develop new farmland using salty water from the sea and from deserts, and preserve all those spaces of forest, that would really make a contribution to carbon balance and climate change.”
Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center, […] he is concerned not only with the analysis of stones in space but also with problems on a global level. He predicts that by developing salt-based agriculture, we could then control groundwater problems in an average of 15 to 20 years, freeing up almost 70 percent of the water we are using for conventional agriculture. The beauty of halophytes is that you can grow them anywhere there is saltwater. And we have plenty of that.»
[…] According to researchers at the University of Delaware, a perennial species called Kosteletzkya pentacarpos could function in the desert in salty lands in regions of North America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and western Australia. This species can grow in salty lands, using saline water irrigation. It is not invasive. It is tolerant of both droughts and floods. And its seeds are plausible candidates to be biofuels.
[…] Research published in the journal Renewable Energy analyzes that the plant has potential as a biodiesel and a source of ethanol, revealing an important commercial use as cat litter or animal clothing.
[…] The seed body is an important source of amino acids. The roots, flowers and biopolymers in the plant can also be used as gums for industrial chemists. It is also quite affordable to grow.
[…]The great opportunity for halophytes, both commercially and environmentally, is fuel. But converting halophyte biofuel to a commercial scale would require a huge demand for energy. “Oil companies should become farmers instead of digging holes in the ground,” Bushnell explains.
[…] There is no magic switch that will make everything go away, and the halophytes will not sooner save the planet from solar power, the need for fuel and genetic engineering. We may not be able to escape the inevitable, but we could at least learn to defend ourselves against blows.
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