Soil Salinity Variations in an Irrigation Scheme during a Period of Extreme Dry and Wet Cycles

Abstract

Salinization of irrigated lands is a major challenge towards supplying required food and feed to meet the needs of an increasing global population. In this study, the changes in soil salinity and several other chemical properties were investigated in an irrigation scheme during a period that experienced severe drought followed by above-normal precipitation. Soil salinity, represented by the electrical conductivity (EC) of the saturated paste extract, decreased for the top layers and increased for the bottom layers during the study period, suggesting some level of leaching had occurred. However, the change in the average EC of top 1.5 m of the soil was not statistically significant. The change in exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) was not significant over the study period either. In contrast, average pH and calcium concentrations increased and decreased significantly during the study period, respectively. EC and ESP data were used in soil classification. The percentage of all sampled sites classified as saline was 60 at the beginning of the dry–wet period, but dropped to 50% at the end of this period. All tested parameters were temporally stable, preserving their spatial rank during the study period.