Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

Vegetative bioremediation of extremely salt-affected calcareous soils

Author(s):

Tarek G. Ammari ¹*, Rakad A. Ta’any ¹, Samih Abu-Baker ², Alaedeen B. Tahboub ¹, Naser Almanaseer ¹, Nedal Aloran ¹, Raihan Abu Harb ¹, Taleb R. Abu-Zahra ², Saeid M. Abu-Romman ³, Issam M. Qrunfleh ², Maen K. Hasan ²

Recieved Date: 2013-01-18, Accepted Date: 2013-04-22

Abstract:

Vegetative bioremediation of extremely salt-affected calcareous soil (EC_1:1 41.7 dS m^-1) was practiced by growing two barley cultivars (Hordeum vulgare L.); Acsad and Rum, for 81 days in soil columns with 6 kg soil each. The soil was collected from the Southern Ghor in the Jordan Valley. Bothcultivars were grown at two planting densities; 300 and 900 plants per column, and irrigated with non-saline water. The control treatment was leaching of bare soil (6 kg) with 4.5 L of non-saline water. Each treatment was replicated 5 times. No major differences were found between Rum and Acsad. The aboveground dry biomass of both cultivars was greater particularly at the higher planting density (about 5 tons ha^-1). Barley cultivars extracted much greater amounts of salts and sodium particularly at higher planting density. Ash percent under the conditions of our study ranged from 28 to 35%. Barley cultivars absorbed more Na than K particularly at the lower planting density. The Na:K ratio ranged from 2.7 to 3.7. Higher quantities of salts were removed out of the top 10 cm of treated soils by leaching than by vegetative bioremediation. In parallel, soil EC in the top 10 cm was considerably reduced by leaching and vegetative bioremediation, particularly at the higher planting density. The EC of the bioremediated and leached soils was 51-62% and 93%, respectively, less than that of the untreated soil. However, leaching failed to considerably reduce the EC of the sub-soil layer (10-20 cm); percent reduction decreased to 47%. Vegetative bioremediation resulted in lower EC in the sub-soil layer by 17 to 28%, with less amount of irrigation water distributed over 81 days. Such findings indicate that irrigation water was utilized more efficiently under bioremediation conditions compared to leaching and that even more water was needed for the leaching treatment to efficiently leach greater amounts of salts from sub-soil layers. These findings also imply the necessity of growing bioremediating plant species with deeper roots in order to bioremediate deeper soil layers. At higher planting densities, percent contribution of both cultivars in bioremediating salt-affected soil via extracting ions out of the soil environment along with the harvested aboveground biomass was higher. Acsad contributed more in Na than Cl removal while Rum contributed more in Cl than Na removal at both planting densities. Vegetative bioremediation can be an efficient reclamation practice in salt-affected regions suffering from water shortage.

Keywords:

Salt-affected soils, calcareous soils, electrical conductivity, vegetative bioremediation, soil leaching, sodium, chloride, barley, Acsad, Rum, planting density, water use efficiency

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Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2013
Volume: 11
Issue: 2
Category: Environment
Pages: 1277-1281

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