Human activities are warming the planet, endangering wildlife and even changing the Earth’s rotation. New research shows that we are now also having a serious detrimental impact on the planet’s natural salt cycle. While geological and hydrological processes naturally bring salt to the Earth’s surface over time, we are accelerating this natural flow through mining, land development, and the use of road salt to melt ice.
Researchers from the University of Maryland, the University of Connecticut, Virginia Tech and other institutions combined their expertise to document what they describe as an “existential threat” to freshwater supplies.
The team examined a variety of salts in different environments, including salt concentrations in rivers and soil, not just the kind of sodium chloride most of us readily use in cooking. Some events, such as the drying of lakes, even increase the salt concentration in the air.
“Twenty years ago all we had were case studies,” says Gene Lykens, an ecologist at the University of Connecticut. “We can say that the surface water in the drinking system here in New York or Baltimore is salty.”
“We now show that this cycle from the depths of the Earth to the atmosphere has been significantly disrupted by human activities.”
Among the findings of the research are that an estimated 2.5 billion acres of land worldwide are affected by human-caused salinization and that salt used to clean roads also leaks into the air.
The increasing salinity of freshwater resources is one of the biggest problems. If this trend continues, finding enough water to feed the world’s population could become a real challenge – and that’s before it starts harming other animals and their habitats.
“If you think of the planet as a living organism, when you accumulate so much salt, it can affect the functioning of vital organs or ecosystems,” says Sujay Kaushal, a geologist at the University of Maryland.
Salt levels affect more aspects of life than you can imagine, from how much snow forms on mountain peaks to how likely we are to contract respiratory diseases. Researchers call for more to be done to assess and reduce our impact on the salt cycle; One starting point is the 44 billion pounds of salt distributed on U.S. roads each year. Ultimately, more study and editing will be required.
“This is a very difficult issue because salt is not considered a major contaminant of drinking water in the United States, so regulating this will be a big challenge,” says Kaushal. “But do I think this is a substance that has reached harmful levels in the environment? That’s why”. Source
Source: Port Altele
