Agricultural lands are typically pretty boring places most of the time. They’re often barren, empty of much in the way of wildlife.
Interestingly, near my work, there are quite a few salt pans. Some of these are natural, others are not.
I’m not an expert on these things. But what I do know is that clearing native vegetation encourages the formation of salt pans.
So this one is quite probably a lot larger than it should be, if it is a natural formation at all.
The large amount of dead trees within and around this salt pan is a good indication that this one has grown in recent years. And it has grown as a result of land clearing.
Deep rooted vegetation keeps the groundwater table at a low level. But with a rise in groundwater following land clearing, the natural salts in the soil layer between the water table and lands surface are forced upwards. Which can have some very negative impacts on whatever is on the lands surface.
What you’re looking at in this image is the remains of a Mallee tree after it encountered a very salty surface of land. The rate of decomposition is quite impressive.
Thankfully, my job is to plant up the land around this little patch of saltiness. So, in a decade or two, this landscape could look quite different.