The salt leached out and the soil fertility changes after tsunami

The tsunami hitting Aceh on 26 December 2004 has directly and indirectly caused significant effects on physical, chemical, and biological conditions of agricultural lands. The waves directly undermined soil surface, encapped soil surface with the sea mud, and damaged paddy fields, irrigation networks, and other infrastructures. The waves also physically damages vegetation, including agricultural crops. Although it may not necessarily damaged the crops, the salty sea water also killed cacao crops. Indirectly parts of agricultural lands are (temporarily) abandoned because the owners either have been killed or engaged in many other non-farm activities post tsunami. The sea water, with high salt content, caused escalation of salt in the soil, damaging the soil aggregate, and affected the cation balance in the soil. Physically, the soil hardened and cracked when dry and dispersed when wet. The high salt content caused des-osmosis of fluid from the plant tissue and thus wilted the plants. However, the salt content in the soil quickly dropped because of natural leaching process, especially in West Aceh District with coarse soil texture and relatively high rainfall. Besides containing Na, the sea mud also contain Ca, K, Mg, phosphate, organic matter, and perhaps various micronutrients. Unlike Na, bases such as Ca, K, and Mg cannot easily leach, such that soil fertility several months after tsunami improved following the leaching of Na. This article explain briefly on the findings on salinity, and changes in soil fertility on tsunami affected soils

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