ABSTRACT
Worldwide agricultural production is greatly affected by a number of environmental hazards, major among which is salinity associated with aridity. Saline lands are not only distributed in desert and semidesert regions but also frequently occur in fertile alluvial plains, river, valleys, and coastal regions, close to densely populated areas and irrigation systems. These soils cover an area of about 1 billion ha on our planet earth, out of which 75 million ha lie in Southwest Asia. Iran tops the latter group with nearly 27 million ha, followed by India (23.8 Mha), Pakistan (10.5 Mha), Iraq (6.7 Mha), Afghanistan (3 Mha), and Turkey (2.5 Mha) [1]. It is therefore important to examine saline ecophysiology in terms of the environment and adaptability of plant species found therein.
