February 2021 issue

Volume 66, Issue 2

In the southwestern United States, drought conditions are driving greater groundwater pumping for agricultural irrigation, and with deeper pumping from aquifers comes increased water salinity. New research in Vadose Zone Journal tests the salinity threshold of tomatoes to see how much salt plants can tolerate before yields fall, resulting in a new model that can be applied to a variety of horticultural and agricultural crops. See story on p. 3. The cover photo shows Hui Yang with experimental tomatoes in a greenhouse at New Mexico State University. Photo by Manoj Shukla.