IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v163y2016icp125-138.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of saline water irrigation on water use efficiency and soil salt accumulation for spring maize in arid regions of China

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Qingming
  • Huo, Zailin
  • Zhang, Liudong
  • Wang, Jianhua
  • Zhao, Yong

Abstract

Saline water irrigation represents the future of agriculture in the arid regions of northwestern China. Therefore, saline water irrigation experiments for spring maize were performed for 3 years from 2009 to 2011 in arid regions of northwestern China, and the impact of irrigation with saline water at different concentrations on the water use efficiency and soil salt accumulation was investigated. A SWAP model was calibrated and verified using field experiment data. The relationships of the salt concentration of the irrigation water with the yield and water use efficiency of spring maize were simulated using the SWAP model. Furthermore, the salt transport across the soil layers was quantitatively analyzed. The results showed the following: (1) irrigation with water containing low concentrations of saline (<3g/L) for 3 consecutive years combined with a single application of fresh spring water before sowing every year did not cause significant changes in the yield of spring maize. (2) Saline water irrigation for 3 consecutive years resulted in an increase in the salt accumulation at a soil depth of 0–100cm in 2011. This finding indicated that spring irrigation did not completely leach the salt introduced by saline water irrigation. (3) The SWAP simulation indicated that the yield of spring maize declined by 622kg/ha for every 1g/L increase in the salt concentration. When the salt concentration of the irrigation water was less than 3g/L, the yield of the spring maize was reduced by less than 10%, whereas salt concentrations above 3g/L decreased the yield much more significantly. A simulation over 10 consecutive years of saline water irrigation showed that the spring maize yields of T3, T6 and T9 will reduce by 8%, 33% and 52%, respectively, compared with the yield in 2009. (4) Despite the differences in the salt concentration of irrigation water, the salt residue in the 0–100cm soil layer due to irrigation with 3g/L, 6g/L and 9g/L saline water accounted for approximately 60% of the total salt in the irrigation water in 2011. The remaining 40% of the salt leached to the soil layer below 100cm. In conclusion, irrigation with saline water at concentrations below 3g/L will reduce the yield by no more than 10% compared with fresh water irrigation, but long-term saline water irrigation will result in significant yield losses, even for low concentrations of salt. Thus, the accumulation of salt in the soil after many years of saline water irrigation needs to be addressed by using a proper irrigation schedule in order to ensure the sustainability of saline water irrigation.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Qingming & Huo, Zailin & Zhang, Liudong & Wang, Jianhua & Zhao, Yong, 2016. "Impact of saline water irrigation on water use efficiency and soil salt accumulation for spring maize in arid regions of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 125-138.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:163:y:2016:i:c:p:125-138
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2015.09.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377415301049
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2015.09.012?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Skaggs, Todd H. & van Genuchten, Martinus Th. & Shouse, Peter J. & Poss, James A., 2006. "Macroscopic approaches to root water uptake as a function of water and salinity stress," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(1-2), pages 140-149, November.
    2. Pasternak, D. & De Malach, Y., 1995. "Irrigation with brackish water under desert conditions X. Irrigation management of tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mills) on desert sand dunes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 121-132, September.
    3. van Hoorn, J. W. & Katerji, N. & Hamdy, A. & Mastrorilli, M., 1993. "Effect of saline water on soil salinity and on water stress, growth, and yield of wheat and potatoes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 247-265, June.
    4. Datta, K. K. & Sharma, V. P. & Sharma, D. P., 1998. "Estimation of a production function for wheat under saline conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 85-94, February.
    5. Domínguez, A. & Tarjuelo, J.M. & de Juan, J.A. & López-Mata, E. & Breidy, J. & Karam, F., 2011. "Deficit irrigation under water stress and salinity conditions: The MOPECO-Salt Model," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(9), pages 1451-1461, July.
    6. Chauhan, C.P.S. & Singh, R.B. & Gupta, S.K., 2008. "Supplemental irrigation of wheat with saline water," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 253-258, March.
    7. Kang, Yaohu & Chen, Ming & Wan, Shuqin, 2010. "Effects of drip irrigation with saline water on waxy maize (Zea mays L. var. ceratina Kulesh) in North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(9), pages 1303-1309, September.
    8. Katerji, N. & van Hoorn, J. W. & Hamdy, A. & Mastrorilli, M., 2003. "Salinity effect on crop development and yield, analysis of salt tolerance according to several classification methods," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 37-66, August.
    9. Xu, Xu & Huang, Guanhua & Sun, Chen & Pereira, Luis S. & Ramos, Tiago B. & Huang, Quanzhong & Hao, Yuanyuan, 2013. "Assessing the effects of water table depth on water use, soil salinity and wheat yield: Searching for a target depth for irrigated areas in the upper Yellow River basin," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 46-60.
    10. Talebnejad, R. & Sepaskhah, A.R., 2015. "Effect of different saline groundwater depths and irrigation water salinities on yield and water use of quinoa in lysimeter," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 177-188.
    11. Droogers, P. & Bastiaanssen, W. G. M. & Beyazgul, M. & Kayam, Y. & Kite, G. W. & Murray-Rust, H., 2000. "Distributed agro-hydrological modeling of an irrigation system in western Turkey," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 183-202, March.
    12. Katerji, N. & van Hoorn, J. W. & Hamdy, A. & Karam, F. & Mastrorilli, M., 1996. "Effect of salinity on water stress, growth, and yield of maize and sunflower," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 237-249, May.
    13. Verma, A.K. & Gupta, S.K. & Isaac, R.K., 2012. "Use of saline water for irrigation in monsoon climate and deep water table regions: Simulation modeling with SWAP," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 186-193.
    14. Majeed, Abdul & Stockle, Claudio O. & King, Larry G., 1994. "Computer model for managing saline water for irrigation and crop growth: preliminary testing with lysimeter data," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 239-251, December.
    15. Hoffman, G. J. & Rawlins, S. L. & Oster, J. D. & Jobes, J. A. & Merrill, S. D., 1979. "Leaching requirement for salinity control I. Wheat, sorghum, and lettuce," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 177-192, November.
    16. Tedeschi, A. & Menenti, M., 2002. "Simulation studies of long-term saline water use: model validation and evaluation of schedules," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 123-157, March.
    17. Lamsal, K. & Paudyal, Guna N. & Saeed, M., 1999. "Model for assessing impact of salinity on soil water availability and crop yield," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 57-70, June.
    18. Katerji, N. & van Hoorn, J. W. & Hamdy, A. & Mastrorilli, M., 2000. "Salt tolerance classification of crops according to soil salinity and to water stress day index," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 99-109, February.
    19. Singh, R. & van Dam, J.C. & Feddes, R.A., 2006. "Water productivity analysis of irrigated crops in Sirsa district, India," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 253-278, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Zhe & Liu, Shengyao & Jia, Songnan & Du, Fenghuan & Qi, Hao & Li, Jiaxi & Song, Xinyue & Zhao, Nan & Nie, Lanchun & Fan, Fengcui, 2021. "Precise soil water control using a negative pressure irrigation system to improve the water productivity of greenhouse watermelon," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    2. Wang, He & Zheng, Chunlian & Ning, Songrui & Cao, Caiyun & Li, Kejiang & Dang, Hongkai & Wu, Yuqing & Zhang, Junpeng, 2023. "Impacts of long-term saline water irrigation on soil properties and crop yields under maize-wheat crop rotation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    3. Cheng, Minghui & Wang, Haidong & Fan, Junliang & Wang, Xiukang & Sun, Xin & Yang, Ling & Zhang, Shaohui & Xiang, Youzhen & Zhang, Fucang, 2021. "Crop yield and water productivity under salty water irrigation: A global meta-analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    4. Liu, Meihan & Paredes, Paula & Shi, Haibin & Ramos, Tiago B. & Dou, Xu & Dai, Liping & Pereira, Luis S., 2022. "Impacts of a shallow saline water table on maize evapotranspiration and groundwater contribution using static water table lysimeters and the dual Kc water balance model SIMDualKc," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    5. Chengfu Yuan & Shaoyuan Feng & Zailin Huo & Quanyi Ji, 2019. "Simulation of Saline Water Irrigation for Seed Maize in Arid Northwest China Based on SWAP Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-14, August.
    6. Dong, Xinliang & Wang, Jintao & Zhang, Xuejia & Dang, Hongkai & Singh, Bhupinder Pal & Liu, Xiaojing & Sun, Hongyong, 2022. "Long-term saline water irrigation decreased soil organic carbon and inorganic carbon contents," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    7. Zhang, Junpeng & Wang, He & Feng, Di & Cao, Caiyun & Zheng, Chunlian & Dang, Hongkai & Li, Kejiang & Gao, Yang & Sun, Chitao, 2024. "Evaluating the impacts of long-term saline water irrigation on soil salinity and cotton yield under plastic film mulching: A 15-year field study," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    8. Ke, Zengming & Liu, Xiaoli & Ma, Lihui & Feng, Zhe & Tu, Wen & Dong, Qin’ge & Jiao, Feng & Wang, Zhanli, 2021. "Rainstorm events increase risk of soil salinization in a loess hilly region of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    9. Liu, Yi & Zeng, Wenzhi & Ao, Chang & Lei, Guoqing & Wu, Jingwei & Huang, Jiesheng & Gaiser, Thomas & Srivastava, Amit Kumar, 2022. "Optimization of winter irrigation management for salinized farmland using a coupled model of soil water flow and crop growth," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    10. Sarker, Khokan Kumer & Hossain, Akbar & Timsina, Jagadish & Biswas, Sujit Kumar & Malone, Sparkle L. & Alam, Md. Khairul & Loescher, Henry W. & Bazzaz, Mahfuz, 2020. "Alternate furrow irrigation can maintain grain yield and nutrient content, and increase crop water productivity in dry season maize in sub-tropical climate of South Asia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    11. Chen, Yang & Wang, Lu & Tong, Ling & Hao, Xinmei & Wu, Xuanyi & Ding, Risheng & Kang, Shaozhong & Li, Sien, 2023. "Effects of biochar addition and deficit irrigation with brackish water on yield-scaled N2O emissions under drip irrigation with mulching," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    12. Rajesh Kumar Soothar & Wenying Zhang & Binhui Liu & Moussa Tankari & Chao Wang & Li Li & Huanli Xing & Daozhi Gong & Yaosheng Wang, 2019. "Sustaining Yield of Winter Wheat under Alternate Irrigation Using Saline Water at Different Growth Stages: A Case Study in the North China Plain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-16, August.
    13. Yang, Hui & Du, Taisheng & Mao, Xiaomin & Ding, Risheng & Shukla, Manoj K., 2019. "A comprehensive method of evaluating the impact of drought and salt stress on tomato growth and fruit quality based on EPIC growth model," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 116-127.
    14. Liu, Meihan & Shi, Haibin & Paredes, Paula & Ramos, Tiago B. & Dai, Liping & Feng, Zhuangzhuang & Pereira, Luis S., 2022. "Estimating and partitioning maize evapotranspiration as affected by salinity using weighing lysimeters and the SIMDualKc model," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    15. Wei Zhu & Shiguo Gu & Rui Jiang & Xin Zhang & Ryusuke Hatano, 2024. "Saline–Alkali Soil Reclamation Contributes to Soil Health Improvement in China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-25, July.
    16. Zhenjie Du & Shuang Zhao & Yingjun She & Yan Zhang & Jingjing Yuan & Shafeeq Ur Rahman & Xuebin Qi & Yue Xu & Ping Li, 2022. "Effects of Different Wastewater Irrigation on Soil Properties and Vegetable Productivity in the North China Plain," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-13, July.
    17. Zengming Ke & Xiaoli Liu & Lihui Ma & Feng Jiao & Zhanli Wang, 2023. "Spatial Distribution of Soil Water and Salt in a Slightly Salinized Farmland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-15, April.
    18. Yuan, Chengfu & Feng, Shaoyuan & Huo, Zailin & Ji, Quanyi, 2019. "Effects of deficit irrigation with saline water on soil water-salt distribution and water use efficiency of maize for seed production in arid Northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 424-432.
    19. Liao, Qi & Ding, Risheng & Du, Taisheng & Kang, Shaozhong & Tong, Ling & Gu, Shujie & Gao, Shaoyu & Gao, Jia, 2024. "Stomatal conductance modulates maize yield through water use and yield components under salinity stress," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kumar, P. & Sarangi, A. & Singh, D.K. & Parihar, S.S. & Sahoo, R.N., 2015. "Simulation of salt dynamics in the root zone and yield of wheat crop under irrigated saline regimes using SWAP model," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 72-83.
    2. Minhas, P.S. & Ramos, Tiago B. & Ben-Gal, Alon & Pereira, Luis S., 2020. "Coping with salinity in irrigated agriculture: Crop evapotranspiration and water management issues," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    3. Rosa, R.D. & Ramos, T.B. & Pereira, L.S., 2016. "The dual Kc approach to assess maize and sweet sorghum transpiration and soil evaporation under saline conditions: Application of the SIMDualKc model," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 77-94.
    4. Verma, A.K. & Gupta, S.K. & Isaac, R.K., 2012. "Use of saline water for irrigation in monsoon climate and deep water table regions: Simulation modeling with SWAP," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 186-193.
    5. Singh, Rajinder, 2004. "Simulations on direct and cyclic use of saline waters for sustaining cotton-wheat in a semi-arid area of north-west India," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 153-162, April.
    6. Katerji, N. & van Hoorn, J. W. & Hamdy, A. & Mastrorilli, M., 2004. "Comparison of corn yield response to plant water stress caused by salinity and by drought," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 95-101, March.
    7. Liu, Bingxia & Wang, Shiqin & Kong, Xiaole & Liu, Xiaojing & Sun, Hongyong, 2019. "Modeling and assessing feasibility of long-term brackish water irrigation in vertically homogeneous and heterogeneous cultivated lowland in the North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 98-110.
    8. Kijne, Jacob W., 2003. "Water productivity under saline conditions," Book Chapters,, International Water Management Institute.
    9. Liu, Meihan & Shi, Haibin & Paredes, Paula & Ramos, Tiago B. & Dai, Liping & Feng, Zhuangzhuang & Pereira, Luis S., 2022. "Estimating and partitioning maize evapotranspiration as affected by salinity using weighing lysimeters and the SIMDualKc model," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    10. Kijne, Jacob W., 2003. "Water productivity under saline conditions," IWMI Research Reports 158360, International Water Management Institute.
    11. Tianyu Wang & Zhenghe Xu & Guibin Pang, 2019. "Effects of Irrigating with Brackish Water on Soil Moisture, Soil Salinity, and the Agronomic Response of Winter Wheat in the Yellow River Delta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-16, October.
    12. Ramos, Tiago B. & Darouich, Hanaa & Šimůnek, Jiří & Gonçalves, Maria C. & Martins, José C., 2019. "Soil salinization in very high-density olive orchards grown in southern Portugal: Current risks and possible trends," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 265-281.
    13. Kabir, Md. Jahangir & Gaydon, Donald S. & Cramb, Rob & Roth, Christian H., 2018. "Bio-economic evaluation of cropping systems for saline coastal Bangladesh: I. Biophysical simulation in historical and future environments," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 107-122.
    14. Feng, Genxiang & Zhang, Zhanyu & Wan, Changyu & Lu, Peirong & Bakour, Ahmad, 2017. "Effects of saline water irrigation on soil salinity and yield of summer maize (Zea mays L.) in subsurface drainage system," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 205-213.
    15. Kijne, J. W., 2003. "Water productivity under saline conditions," IWMI Books, Reports H032637, International Water Management Institute.
    16. Genxiang Feng & Zhanyu Zhang & Zemin Zhang, 2019. "Evaluating the Sustainable Use of Saline Water Irrigation on Soil Water-Salt Content and Grain Yield under Subsurface Drainage Condition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-18, November.
    17. Ren, Dongyang & Xu, Xu & Engel, Bernard & Huang, Quanzhong & Xiong, Yunwu & Huo, Zailin & Huang, Guanhua, 2021. "A comprehensive analysis of water productivity in natural vegetation and various crops coexistent agro-ecosystems," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    18. Farhadi Machekposhti, Mabood & Shahnazari, Ali & Z. Ahmadi, Mirkhalegh & Aghajani, Ghasem & Ritzema, Henk, 2017. "Effect of irrigation with sea water on soil salinity and yield of oleic sunflower," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 69-78.
    19. Liu, Yi & Zeng, Wenzhi & Ao, Chang & Lei, Guoqing & Wu, Jingwei & Huang, Jiesheng & Gaiser, Thomas & Srivastava, Amit Kumar, 2022. "Optimization of winter irrigation management for salinized farmland using a coupled model of soil water flow and crop growth," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    20. Katerji, N. & van Hoorn, J. W. & Hamdy, A. & Mastrorilli, M. & Karzel, E. Mou, 1997. "Osmotic adjustment of sugar beets in response to soil salinity and its influence on stomatal conductance, growth and yield," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 57-69, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:163:y:2016:i:c:p:125-138. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.