Negative human impact on the Earth’s natural salt cycle

Negative human impact on the Earth’s natural salt cycle

New research rings an alarm bell about the increase in salts in fresh water bodies

A new study revealed that human activities have a negative impact in making the air, soil, and bodies of fresh water more salty. Which could pose an existential threat if these effects continue in the long term. By human activities here we mean – specifically – mining and petroleum extraction operations, as well as land development, as all of them are processes that condense salts on the surface of the Earth over time, at rates much higher than usual rates, resulting from natural geological and hydrological processes.

The new research – which was led by University of Maryland geology professor Sujay Kaushal – was published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. To ring an alarm bell about a threat to humanity and all ecosystems, which is the increase in salinity in various ecosystems.

Salt cycle inPlanet Earth

Geological and hydrological processes naturally bring salts to the Earth’s surface over time, where they then find their way into the oceans. But human activities, such as mining, further accelerate this natural “salt cycle,” the same negative impact that results from activities such as agriculture, construction, water treatment, and road paving. Add to this industrial processes; All of these activities lead to salt condensation, which harms biodiversity and makes drinking water unsafe in some cases.

In this context, Kaushal said: “We can look at planet Earth as a living organism, and that ecosystems are its vital organs. Therefore, when a lot of salts naturally accumulate in this organism, this will necessarily negatively affect the work of its vital organs – ecosystems.”

He added: “This increasing salinity in the water – in particular – will have more harmful effects on biodiversity, in addition to the very high cost of treating this water, which will also result in highly salty waste, which must be disposed of safely.”

Kushal and colleagues describe these disturbances in the natural salt cycle as the “anthropogenic salt cycle.” This proves for the first time that humans influence salt concentration and circulation on an interconnected global scale.

“Twenty years ago, all we had were case studies, just to estimate the proportion of salts in a system, but the new study demonstrates the human role in disrupting the balance of the natural salt cycle,” said study co-author Gene Likens, an ecologist at the University of Connecticut and the Cary Institute for Environmental Studies.

The new study sheds light on a variety of salt ions found underground and in surface waters, and perhaps the most abundant of these are calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sulfate ions.

To correct the understanding of many readers of the Earth Guards magazine, salt does not only mean table salt (sodium chloride). Salt in chemistry refers to ionic compounds that consist of a positive and a negative radical. Examples of other salts in our lives include sodium carbonate, which is used in cleaning, and sodium bicarbonate, which is used in baking pastries.

Dangerous effects of excess salts

Unnatural increase in salt concentrations as a result of human activities, which have negatively affected approximately 2.5 billion acres of soil around the world – an area equivalent to the size of the United States – in addition to the increase in salt ions in streams and rivers over the past fifty years, coinciding with the increased use and production of salts globally.

Some of you may have been surprised when we mentioned in the introduction to the article that the increase in salinity has spread to the air, and the detail of this is that in some areas lakes dry up, sending columns of dust carrying salt particles into the atmosphere. In areas exposed to snow, roads are sprayed with sodium chloride and calcium chloride salts to lower the freezing point of water, but with movement these salt particles scatter into the air.

The movement of salt particles in the air can lead to a set of unexpected effects, as these particles can accelerate the melting of snow. Which could harm many communities that depend on snow for their water supplies.

Because of their chemical structure and small particle size, salt ions can bind to pollutants found in the soil. To form a variety of chemical compounds, which spread in the environment with harmful and unexpected effects.

Setting global limits on salt levels

Kushal said: “Increasing the concentration of salts in environmental systems is a very dangerous matter that we did not previously pay attention to, but now we urgently need to study the matter in more depth than ever before, and this is taking into account that the dangers of increasing salt to humans and biodiversity will have effects in the short and long term, especially increasing salt in the water, which could – sharply – upset the balance. Environmental”.

The study’s authors also called for the establishment of “global limits for the safe and sustainable use of salts,” similar to global limits set for concentrations of air pollutants, with strategic goals in the short and long term, as is the case with climate goals; This is to ensure the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In summary, based on the above, we say: The issue of increasing concentrations of salts in our environmental systems is a very complex issue, and this is because of its severe and widespread effects that can worsen over time, to constitute an existential threat to humanity and all living organisms. Therefore, we must act now, based on our sound awareness of the nature of this problem, so that we do not fall into the same trap that we fell into when dealing with the climate issue. Just because the effects of a problem are not sufficiently apparent at the present time does not mean that this problem can be overlooked.