Looking forward to reducing environmental impacts resulting from desalting brackish water in the region of the crystalline rocks in the semi-arid tropic of Brazil, saltbush (Atriplex nummularia) was cultivated during one year in an experimental field of Embrapa Semi-Arid. The plants were irrigated with the brine from the desalting plant which presented a salt concentration of 11.38 dS m-1. Each plant received 75 L of water per week, during 48 weeks. The soil salinity, at the depth of 0-90 cm, of the cropped area averaged 0.64 dS m-1 before starting the irrigation process. After the plants were harvested, the soil salinity in the same profile averaged 12.74 dS m-1. The saltbush yield was 6,537.00 kg ha-1 of dry matter with 18.4% crude protein in the foliage. The Atriplex presented a great potential for extracting salt from the soil profile. However, when irrigated with concentrated brine, the amount of extracted salt from the soil profile by saltbush plants is in the order of 3.93% of the total amount of salt added by the irrigations. This implies that, for sustainable water management, it is necessary to generate more information about soil and water relationships for saltbush plants in the arid zones of Brazil.
halophytes; salinity
