Sensor-Based Assessment of Soil Salinity during the First Years of Transition from Flood to Sprinkler Irrigation

Abstract

A key issue for agriculture in irrigated arid lands is the control of soil salinity, and this is one of the goals for irrigated districts when changing from flood to sprinkling irrigation. We combined soil sampling, proximal electromagnetic induction, and satellite data to appraise how soil salinity and its distribution along a previously flood-irrigated field evolved after its transformation to sprinkling. We also show that the relationship between NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) and ECe (electrical conductivity of the soil saturation extracts) mimics the production function between yield and soil salinity. Under sprinkling, the field had a double crop of barley and then sunflower in 2009 and 2011. In both years, about 50% of the soil of the entire studied field—45 ha—had ECe < 8 dS m−1, i.e., allowing barley cultivation, while the percent of surface having ECe ≥ 16 dS m−1 increased from 8.4% in 2009 to 13.7% in 2011. Our methodology may help monitor the soil salinity oscillations associated with irrigation management. After quantifying and mapping the soil salinity in 2009 and 2011, we show that barley was stunted in places of the field where salinity was higher. Additionally, the areas of salinity persisted after the subsequent alfalfa cropping in 2013. Application of differential doses of water to the saline patches is a viable method to optimize irrigation water distribution and lessen soil salinity in sprinkler-irrigated agriculture.

Using Apparent Electrical Conductivity as Indicator for Investigating Potential Spatial Variation of Soil Salinity across Seven Oases along Tarim River in Southern Xinjiang, China

“…For soil salinity quantification modeling, the relationship between EMI derived ECa and laboratory-analyzed EC were confirmed by previous studies: in the California archives R 2 = 0.87 with EC (soil:water-1:5) [27], in Australia with R 2 = 0.92 [92], in Spain with R 2 = 0.88 and 0.94 in 2009 and 2011, respectively [29], in the Yellow River Delta with R 2 = 0.86 [30], and in Xinjiang with R 2 = 0.85, 0.75 and 0.95 for three fields of Chenopodiaceae and Tamaricaceae [31]. This result showed that the ECa-EC correlation is generally lower than the aforementioned studies.…”

“…EMI was first used to evaluate soil salinity in the early 1970s and was gradually extended to the simulation of other key soil parameters such as soil moisture, soil texture, clay content, organic carbon, soil compactness, exchangeable cations and soil pH [26], however, most studies conducted at a small scale. For quantitative estimation of soil salinity, previous studies have demonstrated a close relationship between EMI and laboratory-analyzed ECe1:5 in California with R 2 = 0.87 [27], in Australia with R 2 = 0.92 [28], in Spain with R 2 = 0.88 and 0.94 in 2009 and 2011, respectively [29], in the Yellow River Delta with R 2 = 0.86 [30] and in Xinjiang with R 2 = 0.85, 0.75 and 0.95 for three fields of Chenopodiaceae and Tamaricaceae [31]. Nowadays, EMI's convenience and reliability has led to its widespread use in soil surveys and the identification of specific soil information.…”

Review of soil salinity assessment for agriculture across multiple scales using proximal and/or remote sensors

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Analysis of Primary Field Shielding Stability for the Weak Coupling Coil Designs

“…The transient electromagnetic method (TEM) is an effective non-intrusive geophysical method, which employs loop-source TEM devices in ground exploration [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Due to the mutual inductance between the transmitter (TX) coil and the receiver (RX) coil, the primary field generated by the emission current in the TX coil reduces the near-surface detection accuracy.…”