The first salt tolerant species database in China has been established in east China's coastal Shandong Province, said a leading scientist in the province Monday.

The database, covering salt tolerant species information released since 1953 by institutes and organizations around the world, would help in transformed in barren salt marshes into green areas, said Yang Hetong, head of the Biology Institute of the Shandong Academy of Sciences (BISAS).

The project, co-developed by the BISAS and the South Australia Research and Development Institute, was started in 2008 and included almost 100,000 species, said Yang.

Information such as categories, characters and usages of the species were covered as well as their salt tolerance and soil adaptation capacities.

Translation of the database into Chinese was scheduled to be completed by 2011, he said.

The BISAS had introduced more than 100 halophyte, or salt tolerant species, from Australia and collected more than 200 species in China to promote cultivation of salty soil, he said.

For example, six species were found to be adaptable to salt marshes in Dongying on the Yellow River Delta, where more than 443,000 hectares of land was salt marsh, said Wei Yanli, researcher of the BISAS.

The species would also have commercial uses, producing fruit to make juice and stems for feedstuff, Wei said.

Halophytes could absorb salt in soil and improve the soil quality, she said.

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