Abstract
Abstract. Olive (Olea europaea L.) orchard brackish water irrigation with incorrect irrigation management reduces soil fertility and degrades soil health through soil salinization. This study was conducted in the Beit She'an Valley, one of the main agricultural regions in Israel, in an olive orchard in which a combination of soil salinization and poor drainage conditions impedes plant development and causes severe economic damage. By combining various research methods, including soil salinity monitoring, field experiments, remote sensing (frequency domain electromagnetic – FDEM), and unsaturated soil profile saline water movement modeling, the salinization processes were quantified. Irrigation water conductance of 3.13 dS m−1 points to salinization within the tree upper root zone, whereas the modeling results suggest that salinization danger is greater with brackish treated wastewater rather than with lower-salinity brackish irrigation groundwater and that irrigation with potable water can help reduce salt accumulation and recover damaged plots.
Highlights
Soil salinity surveys and studies across the world and Israel indicate that irrigation with poor water quality and improper irrigation management causes soil salinization and degradation, and damages soil fertility (Wada et al, 2016; Pandit et al, 2020)
Near the first tensiometer station at a depth of about 60 cm of the travertine layer and irrigation by about 80 % of the acceptable amount of irrigation, the soil salinity was about 11–12 dS m −1 in the soil profile in September (Fig. 6)
Before the rainfall in mid-December, soil salinization gradually increased, and the most intense salinization growth to 14 dS m −1 was found in the upper layer (0–20 cm) of soil
Summary
Soil salinity surveys and studies across the world and Israel indicate that irrigation with poor water quality and improper irrigation management causes soil salinization and degradation, and damages soil fertility (Wada et al, 2016; Pandit et al, 2020). Most of the soil salinization problems in the Beit She’an Valley are associated with the use of poor-quality irrigation water (conductivity above 3 dS m−1). At a lemon tree plantation in the Jordan Valley, it was found that an increase in irrigation water salinity to 3.7 times freshwater salinity increased soil salinity by 3.8 to 4.1 times in a few years (Abu Awwad, 2001). An additional effect of treated effluent irrigation in the Jordan Valley was decreasing pH in parallel to soil salinity increase (Mohammad and Mazahreh, 2003). In the Beit She’an Valley, high saline– sodic concentration in irrigation damaged the soil’s hydraulic conductivity, increasing runoff and causing silt–clay chalk soil erosion (Mandal et al, 2008a; Bhardwaj et al, 2008)
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