IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v185y2017icp78-92.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Modeling sulfur cycling and sulfate reactive transport in an agricultural groundwater system

Author

Listed:
  • Tavakoli Kivi, Saman
  • Bailey, Ryan T.

Abstract

Many irrigated agricultural areas worldwide suffer from salinization of soil, groundwater, and nearby river systems. Increasing salinity concentrations are due principally to a high water table that results from excessive irrigation, canal seepage, and a lack of efficient drainage systems, and lead to decreased crop yield. High groundwater salinity loading to nearby river systems also impacts downstream areas, where saline river water is diverted for application on irrigated fields. This paper presents a physically-based, spatially-distributed groundwater reactive transport model that simulates the fate and transport of sulfate, the principal salt ion in many salt-affected watersheds, in an agricultural groundwater system. The model, developed from the UZF-RT3D model that simulates chemical species transport in variably-saturated subsurface systems, accounts for sulfur cycling (crop uptake, organic matter decomposition, mineralization/immobilization) in the soil-plant system, oxidation-reduction reactions, including the oxidation of residual Sulfur in marine shale, and also the effect of dissolved oxygen and nitrate on sulfate chemical reduction. The model is tested at the small scale (i.e. soil profile) and at the regional scale (500km2) in the Lower Arkansas River Valley (LARV) in southeastern Colorado, an area acutely affected by salinization in the past few decades. Results demonstrate that although the major sulfate reactive transport processes are accounted for, the model consistently under-predicts measured soil and groundwater sulfate concentrations, pointing to the need for a comprehensive salinity module that accounts not only for advection, dispersion, sulfur cycling, and oxidation-reduction, but also salt ion equilibrium chemistry that includes the dissolution and precipitation of salt minerals in the soil-aquifer system. However, the model can be a useful tool to assess sulfate fate and transport in areas that are not dominated by salt mineral precipitation and dissolution.

Suggested Citation

  • Tavakoli Kivi, Saman & Bailey, Ryan T., 2017. "Modeling sulfur cycling and sulfate reactive transport in an agricultural groundwater system," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 78-92.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:185:y:2017:i:c:p:78-92
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2017.02.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377417300434
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2017.02.002?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. Wichelns, Dennis & Qadir, Manzoor, 2015. "Achieving sustainable irrigation requires effective management of salts, soil salinity, and shallow groundwater," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 31-38.
    2. Hutmacher, R. B. & Ayars, J. E. & Vail, S. S. & Bravo, A. D. & Dettinger, D. & Schoneman, R. A., 1996. "Uptake of shallow groundwater by cotton: growth stage, groundwater salinity effects in column lysimeters," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 205-223, October.
    3. Gowing, J.W. & Rose, D.A. & Ghamarnia, H., 2009. "The effect of salinity on water productivity of wheat under deficit irrigation above shallow groundwater," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(3), pages 517-524, March.
    4. Ayars, J.E. & Christen, E.W. & Hornbuckle, J.W., 2006. "Controlled drainage for improved water management in arid regions irrigated agriculture," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(1-2), pages 128-139, November.
    5. Hornbuckle, J.W. & Christen, E.W. & Faulkner, R.D., 2007. "Evaluating a multi-level subsurface drainage system for improved drainage water quality," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 208-216, May.
    6. Konukcu, F. & Gowing, J.W. & Rose, D.A., 2006. "Dry drainage: A sustainable solution to waterlogging and salinity problems in irrigation areas?," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(1-2), pages 1-12, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Singh, Ajay, 2016. "Managing the water resources problems of irrigated agriculture through geospatial techniques: An overview," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 2-10.
    2. Gowing, J.W. & Rose, D.A. & Ghamarnia, H., 2009. "The effect of salinity on water productivity of wheat under deficit irrigation above shallow groundwater," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(3), pages 517-524, March.
    3. Ghamarnia, Houshang & Khodaei, Erfan, 2016. "Evidence on shallow groundwater use by edible green vegetables such as Solanum pseudoca psicum, Ocimum basilicum and Lepidium sativum in a semi-arid climate condition," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 198-210.
    4. Ghamarnia, Houshang & Jalili, Zahra, 2014. "Shallow saline groundwater use by Black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) in the presence of surface water in a semi-arid region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 89-100.
    5. 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).
    6. Shouse, Peter J. & Ayars, James E. & Simunek, Jirí, 2011. "Simulating root water uptake from a shallow saline groundwater resource," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(5), pages 784-790, March.
    7. Ayars, James E. & Shouse, Peter & Lesch, Scott M., 2009. "In situ use of groundwater by alfalfa," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 1579-1586, November.
    8. Wang, Rong & Huang, Guanhua & Xu, Xu & Ren, Dongyang & Gou, Jiachao & Wu, Zhangsheng, 2022. "Significant differences in agro-hydrological processes and water productivity between canal- and well-irrigated areas in an arid region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    9. Li, He & Miao, Qingfeng & Shi, Haibin & Li, Xianyue & Zhang, Shengwei & Zhang, Fengxia & Bu, Huailiang & Wang, Pei & Yang, Lin & Wang, Yali & Du, Heng & Wang, Tong & Feng, Weiying, 2024. "Remote sensing monitoring of irrigated area in the non-growth season and of water consumption analysis in a large-scale irrigation district," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 303(C).
    10. Feng Tian & Haibin Shi & Qingfeng Miao & Ruiping Li & Jie Duan & Xu Dou & Weiying Feng, 2023. "Soil Water and Salt Transport in Severe Saline–Alkali Soil after Ditching under Subsurface Pipe Drainage Conditions," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-20, November.
    11. Hu, Qiuli & Zhao, Ying & Hu, Xinlong & Qi, Ji & Suo, Lizhu & Pan, Yinghua & Song, Bing & Chen, Xiaobing, 2022. "Effect of saline land reclamation by constructing the “Raised Field -Shallow Trench” pattern on agroecosystems in Yellow River Delta," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    12. Litskas, V.D. & Aschonitis, V.G. & Lekakis, E.H. & Antonopoulos, V.Z., 2014. "Effects of land use and irrigation practices on Ca, Mg, K, Na loads in rice-based agricultural systems," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 30-36.
    13. Alberto, Ma. Carmelita R. & Quilty, James R. & Buresh, Roland J. & Wassmann, Reiner & Haidar, Sam & Correa, Teodoro Q. & Sandro, Joseph M., 2014. "Actual evapotranspiration and dual crop coefficients for dry-seeded rice and hybrid maize grown with overhead sprinkler irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 1-12.
    14. J. W. Sirpa-Poma & F. Satgé & R. Pillco Zolá & E. Resongles & M. Perez-Flores & M. G. Flores Colque & J. Molina-Carpio & O. Ramos & M.-P. Bonnet, 2024. "Complementarity of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 Data for Soil Salinity Monitoring to Support Sustainable Agriculture Practices in the Central Bolivian Altiplano," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-18, July.
    15. Romeu Gerardo & Isabel P. de Lima, 2022. "Sentinel-2 Satellite Imagery-Based Assessment of Soil Salinity in Irrigated Rice Fields in Portugal," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-20, September.
    16. Gul, Nazar & Mangrio, Munir Ahmed & Shaikh, Irfan Ahmed & Siyal, Abdul Ghafoor & Taie Semiromi, Majid, 2024. "Quantifying the impacts of varying groundwater table depths on cotton evapotranspiration, yield, water use efficiency, and root zone salinity using lysimeters," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    17. Thomas Spencer & Tihomir Ancev & Jeff Connor, 2009. "Improving Cost Effectiveness of Irrigation Zoning for Salinity Mitigation by Introducing Offsets," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 23(10), pages 2085-2100, August.
    18. Benedykt Pepliński & Wawrzyniec Czubak, 2021. "The Influence of Opencast Lignite Mining Dehydration on Plant Production—A Methodological Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-29, March.
    19. Liya Zhao & Jingwei Wu & Qi Yang & Hang Zhao & Jun Mao & Ziyang Yu & Yanqi Liu & Anne Gobin, 2025. "Quantifying Evapotranspiration and Environmental Factors in the Abandoned Saline Farmland Using Landsat Archives," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-28, January.
    20. Wenjuan Chen & Mingsi Li & Qinglin Li, 2023. "The Influence of Winter Irrigation Amount on the Characteristics of Water and Salt Distribution and WUE in Different Saline-Alkali Farmlands in Northwest China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-17, October.

    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:185:y:2017:i:c:p:78-92. 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.