Salt stress is a major problem happening in almost all the world, affecting soil metabolism and acting further negatively soil fertility and soil quality, causing land degradation and low ecosystem service functions and ecosystem productivity. In marshy area as one type of important marginal land resources, salt is also the main barrier to be improved and the driving force to make vegetation succeed.

This commentary briefly reviews the main advance focusing on salt‐affected soil and introduced the publications in this Special Issue: Salt Soil Improvement and Efficient Development in Land Degradation & Development 29, 2018, to promote global cooperation for studying salt‐affecting soil quality, land degradation, and eco‐restoration.