Abstract
The Mediterranean climate is marked by arid climate conditions in summer; therefore, crop irrigation is crucial to sustain plant growth and productivity in this season. If groundwater is utilized for irrigation, an impressive water pumping system is needed to satisfy crop water requirements at catchment scale. Consequently, irrigation water quality gets worse, specifically considering groundwater salinization near the coastal areas due to seawater intrusion, as well as triggering soil salinization. With reference to an agricultural coastal area in the Mediterranean basin (southern Italy), close to the Adriatic Sea, an assessment of soil salinization risk due to processing tomato cultivation was carried out. A simulation model was first arranged, then validated, and finally applied to perform a water and salt balance along a representative soil profile on a daily basis. In this regard, long-term weather data and physical soil characteristics of the considered area (both taken from international databases) were utilized in applying the model, as well as considering three salinity levels of irrigation water. Based on the climatic analysis performed and the model outputs, the probability of soil salinity came out very high, such as to seriously threaten tomato yield. Autumn–winter rainfall frequently proved to be insufficient to leach excess salts away from the soil profile and reach sustainable conditions of tomato cultivation. Therefore, alternative cropping strategies were investigated.
Highlights
Salinization is one of the major threats of land degradation [1] that negatively impacts on agricultural sustainability and environmental health, leading to severe losses of soil productivity and desertification processes [2,3]
Salinization is most often caused by the use of highly saline irrigation water, such as groundwater salinized due to seawater intrusion, frequently coupled with poor soil drainage conditions [5,7]
If the irrigation water shows a high salinity level, it follows that the risk of soil salinization is largely increased by increasing the irrigation volume (Figure 2)
Summary
Salinization is one of the major threats of land degradation [1] that negatively impacts on agricultural sustainability and environmental health, leading to severe losses of soil productivity and desertification processes [2,3]. The accumulation of water-soluble salts in the soil is occurring worldwide, with the most prominent areas being the arid and semi-arid climatic zones [4]. Mediterranean regions are characterized by a semi-arid climate, with high temperatures and limited rains in summer, mild winter periods, and frequent drought. The lower rainfall occurring during the summer season, coupled with the high air temperatures and the consequent high potential evapotranspiration, results in a serious water deficit. The systematic support of irrigation in summer is essential to sustain crop growth and production. This is of particular relevance in the Apulia region (southern Italy), where the economy of the agricultural system is strongly based on irrigation farming [8]. The Apulia region is one of the European regions that is most heavily
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