A SOIL-DIAGNOSTIC KEY TO MANAGE SALINE AND WATERLOGGED CATCHMENTS IN THE MT-LOFTY RANGES, SOUTH-AUSTRALIA

Dryland salinity in the Mt Lofty Ranges, South Australia has developed as a result of native vegetation being replaced with pastures that use less water. Groundwaters have risen and mobilized ions (sodium, chloride, sulphate and iron) stored within deeply weathered micaceous sandstones and schists. Salinity resulting from sodium chloride is common in agricultural catchments around Australia, but saline sulphidic soils (with sulphate and iron) have only been studied in South Australia. Salinity is also associated with waterlogging and secondary sodicity. The amelioration of dryland salinity and waterlogging involves management of whole catchments, not just the area that is currently saline. It is imperative that all processes operating in saline catchments and their interactions are clearly understood. Salinity, waterlogging, sodicity, sulphidization and water erosion were studied in four saline subcatchments in the Mt Lofty Ranges. Grey (bleached) and yellow mottles (iron depletions) or black and red stains (iron concentrations) develop under certain conditions of water saturation, salinization, sulphidization, sodification and water erosion in surface and subsurface horizons. The amounts of these diagnostic features were used to develop a farm planning key for managing saline catchments in the Mt Lofty Ranges. Using soil diagnostic features, soil-water processes in saline catchments are easily identified by farmers and land managers. Management options (e.g. fencing, tree planting and drainage) are then targeted to specific soils and can be easily incorporated by agricultural advisers into farm management plans. We recommend that soil diagnostic features which help predict the onset of land degradation be used in the production of land capability maps for farm planning purposes.