Monitoring and simulating dryland soil salinization and assessing the impact of climate change and global warming on soil salinity processes over the past three decades in the Bajestan playa (NE Iran)

Dryland soil salinization strongly affects soil properties, with severe consequences for regional ecology, agriculture and the aeolian dust dynamics. Given its climate-sensitivity it forms a serious environmental hazard, and to cope with this challenge during current global warming it needs to be better understood. The Bajestan Playa, located in the heavily salinization-affected drylands of Iran, is home to several protected areas and serves as a crucial source of regional dust emissions. Consequently, soil salinization in this region affects both local ecosystems and societies but was not systematically studied yet. Using an unprecedented comprehensive approach, we systematically monitored regional soil salinity from 1992 to 2021 through a combination of remote sensing, on-site field measurements, and laboratory analyses. We linked these data with regional and global climatic information to achieve three main objectives: (i) understanding the spatio-temporal dynamics of soil salinity, (ii) assessing the impact of regional and global climate changes on salinization processes, and (iii) exploring the potential applications of our approach for future soil salinity studies. Our high-resolution annual data over three decades have provided significantly deeper insights into soil salinization dynamics. Furthermore, this pioneering, multidisciplinary research showcases substantial potential for future applications in other salinity-affected drylands forming a foundational knowledge base to address the consequences of ongoing global climate change.