Article abstract

Journal of Agricultural and Crop Research

Research Article | Published April 2019 | Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 55-63.

doi: https://doi.org/10.33495/jacr_v7i4.19.113

 

Rootzone salinity monitoring and management in Acacia ampliceps irrigated with three water salinity levels in Entisols of United Arab Emirates

 


 

 

Khalil Ur Rahman1*

Ramachandran Subramanian1

Shabbir Ahmad Shahid2

Shoaib Ismail2

 

Email Author

 

1. BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus, Dubai International Academic City, United Arab Emirates.
2. International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.





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Citation: Rahman KU, Subramanian R, Shabbir Shahid SA, Ismail S (2019). Rootzone salinity monitoring and management in Acacia ampliceps irrigated with three water salinity levels in Entisols of United Arab Emirates. J. Agric. Crop Res. 7(4): 55-63.

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 Abstract 


A three years (2014-2016) trial was conducted at the experimental station of Dubai based International Center for Biosaline Agriculture. The objective of this project was to assess the adoptability of A. ampliceps trees in sandy desert conditions by irrigating with three water salinities (ECiw 10, 20, 30 dS/m). Bubler irrigation system was used to irrigate the trees in basins. Soil salinity (electrical conductivity of soil saturation extract-ECe) was assessed at two depths (0 to 25 and 25 to 50 cm) over a period of three years. Root zone salinity was the lowest in 2014 and the highest in 2016. The root zone salinity at both depths in the years 2014, 2015 and 2016 was higher than the irrigation water salinity (ECiw = 10 dS/m). Salinity at both depths was almost similar where same irrigation water was used. The soil salinity was less than the water salinity of the respective irrigation waters (20 and 30 dS/m) during 2014, revealing soil salinity is well managed. In contrary to 2014, during 2015 and 2016 the soil salinities of the trees irrigated with water salinities of 20 and 30 dS/m were higher than the irrigation water salinities. The results reveal that it is possible to manage salinity during first year compared with subsequent years. The soil salinity with the application of fertilizer is insignificantly higher but within the range of standard deviation. Among two salinity assessment scenarios, the scenario ECe/ECiw > 1.5 fits well to assess salinity management efforts in sandy soil conditions.

Keywords  Sandy soil   desert condition   A. ampliceps   salinity management   typic torripsamments    

 

 

Copyright © 2019 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.

This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

 

 

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