The Dead Sea is known for extreme
conditions, high salt stress, which poses extreme challenges
for organisms. In modern times, the problem has further been
aggravated by agricultural practises such as irrigation. As exemplified
by the picture, problems generated by long-term irrigation in
naturally arid areas are world-wide and the magnitude of increasing
salinity increasingly forces more land out of production. This
is significant. While only about 15% of all land used for agriculture
is irrigated, this area produces more than one third of all food
stuff.
The nature of the damage that high salt levels inflict on plants
is still poorly understood but the development of new genetic
model systems should lead the way to finding and understanding
salinity tolerance mechanisms. Progress is reviewed and a new
genetic model species, Thellungiella halophila, is introduced
by Jian-Kang Zhu:
J-K Zhu, Plant salt tolerance. Trends in Plant Science. 6, 66-71 (2001).
The picture used for the cover in the February 2001 Trends issue is, with modifications, reproduced here. The original picture is provided by NASA
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