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Soil salinization, sodification, and alkalinization are major abiotic stresses that severely deteriorate soil health, restrict nutrient availability, and reduce crop productivity (Huang et al., 2017;Tiggeloven et al., 2020). Salt-affected soils, including saline, sodic, and saline-sodic types, are globally widespread, impacting over one billion hectares across more than 100 countries (Qadir et al., 2007;Hopmans et al., 2021;Shah et al., 2025). According to the FAO (2020), approximately 3% of the global topsoil (0-30 cm) and over 6% of the subsoil (30-100 cm) are salt-affected. These soils occur mainly in arid, semi-arid, and coastal regions but can also develop in poorly drained irrigated lands and areas with saline groundwater tables (Ali et al., 2014;Wang et al., 2024). The problem is expected to intensify with global climate change, leading to increased water scarcity, sea-level rise, and poor soil management practices (Ivushkin et al., 2019;Mukhopadhyay et al., 2023). Notably, around 60% of salt-affected soils are classified as sodic or saline-sodic, and these soil types are widely distributed in agricultural regions (Qadir et al., 2007;Rengasamy, 2010;FAO et al, 2020;Hossain et al., 2020;Wang et al., 2021). The largest extents of such alkaline, sodic, sodic-saline soils occur in countries such as India, China, the USA, Pakistan, and Australia (Alharby et al., 2018). Reportedly, India has over 3 million hectares of sodic soils, mainly in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, while China reports over 7 million hectares, particularly in the Songnen Plain (Abbas et al., 2021). In Australia, about 33% of agricultural land is affected by sodicity, highlighting the severity of the problem (Chi et al., 2012;Chhabra and Chhabra, 2021;Huang et al., 2022;Rezapour et al., 2022). Other affected regions include Argentina (34% of irrigated land), South Africa (18%), and Egypt (33%) (Singh et al., 2013;Wu et al., 2024). Worse, China incurs annual losses of about USD 410 million while India loses nearly USD 3 billion due to such salinityaffected soils, including sodic/saline-sodic ones (Hussain et al., 2017).At the soil level, sodic soils have ESP above 15%, low EC, and a high pH usually exceeding 8.5 (Chi et al., 2012;Huang et al., 2022). Saline-sodic soils combine the properties of both, with EC values above 4 dS m -1 and ESP above 15% (Hafez et al., 2021;Liu et al., 2024). Table 1 shows the classification of soil affected by salinity and sodicity based on EC, SAR, and pH. Sodic and saline-sodic soils are primarily distinguished by their elevated sodium levels, which alter soil structure and disrupt its chemical properties (Singh et al., 2013;Huang et al., 2022). Excess sodium on the soil exchange complex leads to dispersed soil structure, reduced aggregate stability, and decreased water infiltration and hydraulic conductivity (Brady and Weil, 2008;Choudhary and Kharche, 2018;Verma et al., 2024). Then, these conditions cause surface crusting, poor aeration, and root penetration problems (Huang et al., 2017). Noteworthy, high pH in sodic soils is mainly due to the presence of carbonates (CO 3 ² -) and bicarbonates (HCO 3 -), which also decrease the solubility of essential nutrients such as phosphorus (P), zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), and manganese (Mn) (Dutta et al., 2021). In saline-sodic soils, the simultaneous presence of high salt concentrations and exchangeable sodium creates complex interactions that impair root function, increase osmotic stress, and disrupt ion homeostasis (Osman, 2018). Management strategies should be tailored accordingly; saline soils often respond well to leaching, sodic soils require sodium replacement with calcium source, and saline-sodic soils require integrated approaches addressing both salinity and sodicity. Understanding this variability is crucial for both elucidating plant-soil interactions under stress and developing site-specific and integrated management strategies. In fact, the spatial heterogeneity of soil properties, including pH, EC, and SAR, in a horizontal and vertical way at field, farm, and regional tempo-spatial scales, is being focused on (Booltink et al., 2001;Wang et al., 2017;Alharby et al., 2018;Khan et al., 2023). In essence, spatial variability in salinity, sodicity, moisture, and nutrient levels creates an uneven environment that complicates agricultural management (Chuamnakthong et al., 2019;Suska-Malawska et al., 2022). For example, such heterogeneity at the field scale leads to non-uniform crop growth, inconsistent response to fertilizers and soil amendments, and inefficient use of water resources (Haj-Amor et al., 2022). However, several practical challenges remain unresolved. (1) Fields with different sodic, saline-sodic levels are treated differently in terms of amendment amounts and amelioration strategies, but still receive similar nutrient supplements, e.g., fertilizers, water management practices, e.g., irrigation, rice cultivars, and plant densities inputs (Choudhary and Mavi, 2019). (2) During field operation, such as ploughing and land leveling, high stress-affected patches mix with less stress-affected zones, and redistribution of salts creates new soil heterogeneity patterns that complicate the identification, targeting, and management of specific heterogeneous zones (Ivushkin et al., 2019). 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