Should selection for yield in saline regions be made on saline or non-saline soils?

Summary

Saline soils are typically very patchy in their salinity. The yield of crops growing on them is similarly patchy. This paper argues that because most of the yield from such soils comes from the least saline areas, the best breeding strategy for improving the overall yield of crops growing on them is to select for high yield on non-saline soils. This conclusion derives from comparing the effects that four different breeding goals, namely: (1) a 10% increase in yield on non-saline soils, (ii) a 20% increase in the threshold salinity that first reduces yield, (iii) a doubling of yield at an electrical conductivity of the saturation extract (EC_e) of 20 dS/m and (iv) a combination of (i) and (iii), would have on total yield. The effects of achieving these goals in barley, common wheat, durum wheat and triticale in fields exhibiting different salinities are predicted from actual yields of these species grown on different salinities in the field.