Amendment of Saline–Alkaline Soil with Flue-Gas Desulfurization Gypsum in the Yinchuan Plain, Northwest China

Abstract

The effective and safe use of FGD gypsum in agricultural land is still debated in some countries even though its effectiveness in soil management has been reported in many studies. Thus, the changes in the levels of soil salinity, alkalinity, crop yield, and other physicochemical properties in different soil types and crops after reclamation and planting with FGD gypsum over four years are evaluated in this paper. The main aim of this paper is to review the effects of six treatment technologies in addressing soil salinity and sodicity and crop production in soils, with a focus on the basic theory, key technologies, and industrialized applications. This paper also shows that soil conditions can be improved and crop yields can be increased by using FGD alone or in combination with humic acid or fertilizer. FGD gypsum plus K–Zn–Mn fertilizer increased the yield of rice by 135%. In alkaline, salinized, and secondary salinized soils, FGD gypsum combined with organic fertilizer or organic plus chemical fertilizer increased the yield of rice by 21.2% and 60.4%, the yield of sunflower by 2.4% and 23.6%, and the yield of medlar by 18.81% and 20.78%, respectively. The application of FGD gypsum also increased the salt tolerance of salt-tolerant plants. Combined with drainage, laser field levelling and tillage decreased soil salinity by more than 63.76% and increased the yield of oil sunflower by up to 96.96%. This study provides convincing evidence of the benefits of the application of the six treatments to reclaim saline–alkali soils. It is suggested that comprehensive measures should be taken to improve saline–alkaline soil.