Enhancement of infiltration rate of clogged porous beds in the vicinity of dams in arid zones by the roots of indigenous Ziziphus spina‐christ trees

Abstract

Siltation of reservoir beds of recharge dams in arid climates seriously diminishes dams' storage capacity, lessens infiltration and deep percolation rates, increases water loss via evaporation, and ultimately lowers the recharge efficiency to the underlying unconfined aquifer. This study explores possibilities for enhancing the infiltration rate of a silt-clogged recharge-dam bed by cultivation of the Christ's thorn tree (Ziziphus spina-christ), locally known as Sidr, as a hydro-ecoengineering technique. We experimentally quantified the effect of this indigenous tree on the infiltration rates and moisture dynamics in soil tanks and pots. Descriptive statistics and a two-way-repeated-measures analysis at p < .05 were used to compare the effects of the Christ's thorns' roots and plant growth over time on the infiltration rate of silty loam soils (sediments) in the pots and tanks. The Christ's thorn trees significantly increased the steady state infiltration rate of the sediments by 1.9-5.9 times and by 1.7-3.3 times compared to the control (bare soil) in the tank and pot experiments, respectively (p < .05). This study demonstrates the possibility of applying hydroecoengineering techniques for improving the infiltration rate and hence the recharge efficiency of recharge dams in arid areas.

Plant sex influences on riparian communities and ecosystems

“…Increased infiltration rates under trees have also been attributed to roots and the channels they form (Kazemi Zadeh & Sepaskhah, 2016 ). This has been specifically observed for the dioecious Ziziphus spina‐christi (Christ's thorn tree; Al‐Maktoumi et al, 2020 ) the dioecious Olea europaea (common olive, Oleaceae; Vanderlinden et al, 1998 ). Documented intersexual differences in transpiration, and in some cases, root allocation and growth, suggest promise for plant sex influencing infiltration.…”

The Saint‐Venant type isoperimetric inequalities for assessing saturated water storage in lacunary shallow perched aquifers

“…This will transform Equation () into a nonlinear modified Helmholtz equation, to which we plan applying the same technique of Poincaré’s metric. Inequalities for mixed, rather than Dirichlet's boundary conditions in the BVPs for the Poisson equation [36] can be attempted to derive. In HYDRUS3D a new reservoir boundary condition (see e.g., [78]), which allows considering a finite water storage in the ditch (trench) depicted in Figure 2, that is, h 0 (t) devoured by evaporation from D via the mass‐balance conservation [79], can be involved. Even in hyper arid climates of Oman and UAE, phyto‐engineering (growing trees) may make the RHS of the Poisson equation negative in one part of the catchment (D in Figure 1) due to enhanced infiltration during heavy surface ponding periods (see e.g., [80]), and positive in other parts of D. Deriving isoperimetric inequalities for BVPs with an alternating sign of ε is another interesting task.…”

“…3. Even in hyper arid climates of Oman and UAE, phyto-engineering (growing trees) may make the RHS of the Poisson equation negative in one part of the catchment (D in Figure 1) due to enhanced infiltration during heavy surface ponding periods (see e.g., [80]), and positive in other parts of D. Deriving isoperimetric inequalities for BVPs with an alternating sign of ε is another interesting task.…”