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Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering

ISSN 2095-2201

ISSN 2095-221X(Online)

CN 10-1013/X

Postal Subscription Code 80-973

2018 Impact Factor: 3.883

Front Envir Sci Eng    2013, Vol. 7 Issue (2) : 273-280    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-013-0497-0
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Influence of the sewage irrigation on the agricultural soil properties in Tongliao City, China
Hong YAO1(), Shichao ZHANG1, Xiaobo XUE1, Jie YANG1, Kelin HU2, Xiaohua YU1
1. School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China; 2. Department of Soil and Water Sciences, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100094, China
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Abstract

Increasing shortages of fresh water has led to greater use of treated wastewater for irrigation of crops. This study evaluates the spatial variability of soil properties after irrigation with wastewater and freshwater. Geostatistical techniques were used to identify the variability of soil properties at the different sites. A set of physical and chemical soil properties were measured including total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), organic matter (OM) and soil moisture. The TN concentration levels varied from 567 to 700 mg·kg-1, while OC levels ranged from 7.3 to 16.3 mg·kg-1 in wastewater-irrigated zones. The concentration levels of TP were between 371.53 and 402.88 mg·kg-1 for the wastewater-irrigated sites. Wastewater irrigation resulted in higher TN, TP and OM concentrations by 18.4%, 8% and 25%, respectively. The highest TN and OM occurred along the wastewater trunk. It was also observed that nitrogen concentrations correlate with the soil's organic matter. The increase of salinity may be associated with the increase of pH, which might suggest that a reduction of pH will be beneficial for plant growth due to the decrease of salinity. The average concentrations of nitrogen in topsoil were higher than those in subsurface soils in irrigated areas. Such differences of the N profile might be due to variations in organic matter content and microbial populations. Consistent with TN and OM, soil C:N decreased significantly with an increase of depth. This phenomenon possibly reflects a greater degree of breakdown and the older age of humus stored in the deeper soil layers. The analysis of pH levels at different depths for the three sites showed that pH values for wastewater irrigation were slightly lower than the controlled sites at the same depths.

Keywords spatial variability      soil properties      groundwater and sewage irrigation     
Corresponding Author(s): YAO Hong,Email:yaohongts@163.com   
Issue Date: 01 April 2013
 Cite this article:   
Hong YAO,Shichao ZHANG,Xiaobo XUE, et al. Influence of the sewage irrigation on the agricultural soil properties in Tongliao City, China[J]. Front Envir Sci Eng, 2013, 7(2): 273-280.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-013-0497-0
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2013/V7/I2/273
projectinfluenteffluentgroundwater
pH7-87-87-8
COD/(mg·L-1)568.9095.55-
BOD5 /(mg·L-1)193.5020.96-
NH3-N /(mg·L-1)66.4718.692.08
Total N /(mg·L-1)113.7159.151.04
Total P/ (mg·L-1)6.600.040.07
Tab.1  Water quality indices of irrigation water
Fig.1  Location of the study site. The squares labeled with numbers are the study sites for the vertical distribution of soil properties
Fig.2  Horizontal distributions of soil properties (including (a)TP, (b)TN, (c)OM, (d)pH value, (e)water content and (f)salinity) in irrigated areas. The yellow line represents the wastewater irrigation channel. The green line is the boundary between wastewater irrigation zones and controlled zones
Fig.3  Vertical distributions of soil properties (including (a)TN, (b)TP, (c)OM,(d) pH value,(e) water content, (f)salinity and (g)C/N) at the sampling sites
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