Microbiome-Mediated Physiological Mechanisms for Improving Soil Health and Crop Salt Tolerance

Soil salinity is a major abiotic stress limiting crop productivity and long-term soil health by inducing osmotic and ionic imbalances, disrupting water and nutrient uptake. Traditional mitigation methods like soil leaching, chemical amendments, and breeding salt-tolerant crops offer limited success due to high costs and environmental concerns. Therefore, attention has shifted toward utilizing the soil microbiome, including plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria, mycorrhizal fungi, and halotolerant microbes, which support through various physiological mechanisms. These include phytohormone modulation, antioxidant activation, nutrient acquisition and biofilm formation. Unlike earlier studies, this review provides a comprehensive synthesis of microbiome-mediated physiological mechanisms that enhance plant salt tolerance. Moreover, it explores how salinity affects microbial communities that disturbs soil nutrient cycles. The outcomes emphasize that there is a pressing need to transition from chemical-based methods to microbe-assisted approaches. Future research should prioritize the development of location-specific microbial consortia and long-term field trials assessing soil-microbe-plant interactions under salinity.