We received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF- Geomorphology & Land use dynamics) to study soil moisture dynamics and sediment transport in saline/sodic agricultural soils. We (with collaborators from UC Berkeley and USDA) will investigate fundamental soil hydrological and geomorphic processes involved in soil salinization and provide a new mechanistic framework for their explanation. Salinity-affected agricultural systems — a serious threat to global food security — are distributed throughout the world and a quantitative assessment of soil salinity-soil erosion nexus is therefore critically important in understanding feedbacks to climate, air quality, and soil degradation.