Abstract
<p>Olive trees have the capability of growing under semi-arid regions, where drought and salinity are the major concerns. Two years field experiments were carried out to investigate the interaction effects of natural saline well water and irrigation levels on the quantity and quality of fatty acids in the olive flesh fruits (“Roghani” cultivar). A factorial layout within a randomized complete blocks design with three replications of five irrigation levels (I<sub>1</sub> to I<sub>5</sub> as 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1 and 1.25 ET<sub>c</sub>) and three saline water levels (S<sub>1</sub> to S<sub>3</sub> as 100%WW, 50%WW+50%FW and 100%FW) were considered. The fresh and brackish irrigation water were withdrawn from two different natural wells (fresh water (FW) and saline water wells (WW)). <em>Results revealed that <strong>increasing salinity and decreasing irrigation water levels caused significant increment in the ratio of unsaturated fatty acids, palmitic acid to the percentage of oil and oil percentage in olive flesh fruit</strong></em>. It is found that as water<em> </em>salinity increased from lowest to the highest level, the oleic acid trends to its highest value of 23.68% in I<sub>1</sub>S<sub>1</sub>. Mean values of palmitic acid in 2013 were 27.52% and decreased to 19% in 2014. <em>It is concluded that highest percentage of oleic, linoleic, linolenic and palmitic acids obtained under high saline and less applied irrigation treatment (S<sub>1</sub>I<sub>2</sub>) yielding to improve the olive oil quality.</em></p>
Highlights
Limited research is available on olive oil quality under saline water irrigation, especially in areas with poor quality and quantity of groundwater resources
According to the variations in temperature and rain (Figure 3 and Figure 4) and regarding the results obtained for saturated fatty acids during two consecutive years, it can be conclude that saturated fatty acids variations are influenced by the weather variations parameters such as temperature (Figure 3) and precipitation (Figure 4) and there found an inverse relationship between palmitic and stearic acids
Stearic acid was significantly decreased in S1, it was increased at lower irrigation water levels (I2) in two years
Summary
Limited research is available on olive oil quality under saline water irrigation, especially in areas with poor quality and quantity of groundwater resources. Because of the shortage in rain and the growing demand for groundwater in most parts of Iran, the practical concern over drought is escalating and is even more prominent in southern areas of the country, such as the Fars province. In this region, groundwater salinity has become a major problem due to the high rates of water exploitation from wells. Salinity and water stress both cause reductions in the osmotic and matric potential of water in the soil and reduce the uptake of water by the root These factors decrease as a result of evapotranspiration during the intervals between the two consecutive irrigations Plant growth and yield can be affected by the salinity that has been accumulated in the soil from previous years to the present
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