Response of Soil Microenvironment and Crop Growth to Cyclic Irrigation Using Reclaimed Water and Brackish Water

Chuncheng Liu; Juan Wang; Pengfei Huang; Chao Hu; Feng Gao; Yuan Liu; Zhongyang Li; Bingjian Cui

doi:10.3390/plants12122285

Response of Soil Microenvironment and Crop Growth to Cyclic Irrigation Using Reclaimed Water and Brackish Water

Plants (Basel). 2023 Jun 12;12(12):2285. doi: 10.3390/plants12122285.

Authors

Chuncheng Liu^{1

2

3}, Juan Wang⁴, Pengfei Huang^{1

2

3}, Chao Hu^{1

2

3}, Feng Gao^{1

2

3}, Yuan Liu^{1

2

3}, Zhongyang Li^{1

2

3}, Bingjian Cui^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Farmland Irrigation, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinxiang 453002, China.
² Key Laboratory of High-Efficient and Safe Utilization of Agriculture Water Resources, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinxiang 453002, China.
³ Agriculture Water and Soil Environmental Field Science Research Station of Xinxiang City, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinxiang 453000, China.
⁴ College of Hydraulic Science and Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225000, China.

Abstract

The scarcity of freshwater resources has increased the use of nonconventional water resources such as brackish water, reclaimed water, etc., especially in water-scarce areas. Whether an irrigation cycle using reclaimed water and brackish water (RBCI) poses a risk of secondary soil salinization to crop yields needs to be studied. Aiming to find an appropriate use for different nonconventional water resources, pot experiments were conducted to study the effects of RBCI on soil microenvironments, growth, physiological characteristics and antioxidation properties of crops. The results showed the following: (1) compared to FBCI, the soil moisture content was slightly higher, without a significant difference, while the soil EC, sodium and chloride ions contents increased significantly under the RBCI treatment. With an increase in the reclaimed water irrigation frequency (Tri), the contents of EC, Na⁺ and Cl^- in the soil decreased gradually, and the difference was significant; the soil moisture content also decreased gradually. (2) There were different effects of the RBCI regime on the soil's enzyme activities. With an increase in the Tri, the soil urease activity indicated a significant upward trend as a whole. (3) RBCI can alleviate the risk of soil salinization to some extent. The soil pH values were all below 8.5, and were without a risk of secondary soil alkalization. The ESP did not exceed 15 percent, and there was no possible risk of soil alkalization except that the ESP in soil irrigated by brackish water irrigation went beyond the limit of 15 percent. (4) Compared with FBCI, no obvious changes appeared to the aboveground and underground biomasses under the RBCI treatment. The RBCI treatment was conducive to increasing the aboveground biomass compared with pure brackish water irrigation. Therefore, short-term RBCI helps to reduce the risk of soil salinization without significantly affecting crop yield, and the irrigation cycle using reclaimed-reclaimed-brackish water at 3 g·L^-1 was recommended, according to the experimental results.

Keywords: antioxidation property; brackish water; cyclic irrigation; reclaimed water; secondary soil salinization.

Abstract

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