Influence of the sewage irrigation on the agricultural soil properties in Tongliao City, China

Abstract

Increasing shortages of fresh water has led to greater use of treated wastewater for irrigation of crops. This study evaluates the spatial variability of soil properties after irrigation with wastewater and freshwater. Geostatistical techniques were used to identify the variability of soil properties at the different sites. A set of physical and chemical soil properties were measured including total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), organic matter (OM) and soil moisture. The TN concentration levels varied from 567 to 700 mg·kg^-1, while OC levels ranged from 7.3 to 16.3 mg·kg^-1 in wastewater-irrigated zones. The concentration levels of TP were between 371.53 and 402.88 mg·kg^-1 for the wastewater-irrigated sites. Wastewater irrigation resulted in higher TN, TP and OM concentrations by 18.4%, 8% and 25%, respectively. The highest TN and OM occurred along the wastewater trunk. It was also observed that nitrogen concentrations correlate with the soil's organic matter. The increase of salinity may be associated with the increase of pH, which might suggest that a reduction of pH will be beneficial for plant growth due to the decrease of salinity. The average concentrations of nitrogen in topsoil were higher than those in subsurface soils in irrigated areas. Such differences of the N profile might be due to variations in organic matter content and microbial populations. Consistent with TN and OM, soil C:N decreased significantly with an increase of depth. This phenomenon possibly reflects a greater degree of breakdown and the older age of humus stored in the deeper soil layers. The analysis of pH levels at different depths for the three sites showed that pH values for wastewater irrigation were slightly lower than the controlled sites at the same depths.

Keywords

spatial variability / soil properties / groundwater and sewage irrigation

References

[1] Corwin D L, Bradford S A.Environmental impacts and sustainability of degraded water reuse. Journal of Environmental Quality, 2008, 37(5): S1–S7

[2] O’Connor G A, Elliott H A, Bastian R K. Degraded water reuse: an overview. Journal of Environmental Quality, 2008, 37(Suppl 5): S157–S168

[3] Khashiboun, K , Zilberman, A, Shaviv, A. The fate of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts in reclaimed water irrigation-history and non-history soils irrigated with various effluent qualities. Water Air and Soil Pollution, 2007, 185(1-4): 33–41

[4] Manios, T , Papagrigoriou I, Daskalakis G. Evaluation of primary and secondary treated and disinfected wastewater irrigation of tomato and cucumber plants under greenhouse conditions, regarding growth and safety considerations. Water Environment Research, 2006, 78(8): 797–804

[5] Wang Z, Chang A, Wu L, Crowley D. Assessing the soil quality of long-term reclaimed wastewater irrigated cropland. Geoderma, 2003, 114(3-4): 261–278

[6] Singh P K, Deshbhratar P B, Ramteke D S. Effects of sewage wastewater irrigation on soil properties, crop yield and environment. Agricultural Water Management, 2012, 103: 100–104

[7] Rusan M J M, Hinnawi S, Rousan L.Long-term effect of wastewater irrigation of forage crops on soil and plant quality parameters. Desalination, 2007, 215(1-3): 143–152

[8] Bai J, Deng W, Zhu Y. Spatial variability of nitrogen in soils from land/inland water ecotones. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 2004, 35(5-6): 735–749

[9] Chen S, Wu W, Hu K. The effects of land use change and irrigation water resource on nitrate contamination in shallow groundwater at county scale. Ecological Complexity, 2010, 7(2): 131–138

[10] Duan R, Sheppard C D, Fedler C.B.Short-term effects of wastewater land application on soil chemical properties. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, 2010, 211(1-4): 165–176

[11] Wan1, Y Q, Zhang X C, Huang C Q. Spatial variability of soil total nitrogen and soil total phosphorus under different land uses in a small watershed on the Loess Plateau, China. Geoderma, 2009, 150(1-2): 141–149

[12] Liu F Z. Soil and Solid Waste Monitoring and Analysis Technology. Beijing: Chemical Industrial Press, 2006 (in Chinese)

[13] Tan K H. Principles of Soil Chemistry. Florida: CRC Press, 2010

[14] Kombo M M, Vuai S A, Ishiki M. Influence of salinity on pH and aluminum concentration on the interaction of acidic red soil with seawater. Journal of Oceanography, 2005, 61(3): 591–601

[15] Udeigwe, T K, Eze P N, Teboh J M. Application, chemistry, and environmental implications of contaminant-immobilization amendments on agricultural soil and water quality. Environment International, 2011, 37(1): 258–267

[16] Oman S F, Camoes M F, Powell, K J. Guidelines for potentiometric measurements in suspensions. Part B. Guidelines for Practical pH Measurements in Soil Suspension (IUPAC Recommendations 2006). Pure and Applied Chemistry. 2007, 79(1): 81–86

[17] Bai J H, Ouyang H, Deng W, Zhu Y, Zhang X, Wang Q. Spatial distribution characteristics of organic matter and total nitrogen of marsh soils in river marginal wetlands. Geoderma, 2005, 124(1-2): 181–192

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg