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HYPOTHESIS OF PHOTO-HALOSYNTHESIS AND ITS
APPLICATION FOR LIFE SUPPORT IN THE BIOSPHERE
K.Y. Biel12,3, N.P. Yensen2,3,1.R. Fomina1, S.M. Hertz1
’institute of Basic Biological Problems RAS, Pushchino Moscow
Region 142290, Russia, (0967)-732988, ;
s : 2NyPa International, Tucson AZ
85705, USA, 3Center for the Investigation of
Food and Development, Hermosillo, Sonora 83000, Mexico
We briefly describe: a) the classification of plants according to
their ability to remediate salt-affected soils; b) haloconductiori of salts
to remediate soils; and c) the hypotheses of photo-halosynthesis, a new
vision by which the plants, animals and humans may be protected
against the destructive effects of the light.
Classification of Terrestrial Plants for Salt Removal
World wide, saline soils reduce productivity by trillions of dollar
annually. The remediation of salt-affected soils, while growing
productive salt-tolerant crops, could be of great benefit, particularly in
arid regions. We propose that all terrestrial higher plants may be
divided into three groups based on soil-salt-removal ability: 1. Root-
excluder group - removes little salts (e.g. Phaseolus, Triticum, Zeay
Rhizophora); 2. Accumulator group - accumulates salts, up to 50% of
dry weight (e.g. Atriplex, Salicornia, Suaeda) as salt; 3. Conductor
group - removes an unlimited amount of soil salt (e.g. Distichlis,
Aeluropus, Spartina, Limonium, Avicennia) (Yensen and Biel 2004;
Biel and Yensen 2004a).
Halo-conduction and Halo-aspersion
Conductor plants absorb salt into the roots and transport the salt
to the shoot surface, and then excrete microscopic salt crystals, which
may be wind dispersed for hundreds to thousands of kilometers
(analogous to how 80% of all terrestrial salt has been transported
inland from the oceans). Our haloconduction concept of soil
remediation suggests that many tons of salt per hectare per annum may
be aerially transported back to the ocean and/or to salt-deficient soils.
Conductor plants are environmentally-friendly, can economically
remediate salt-contaminated soils, and concurrently provide a resource
to generate food, fiber, fuel, pharmaceuticals and palatable forages.
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