Land application of wastewater conserves fresh water and recycles nutrients, but little is known of its impacts on arid and semiarid landscapes. Lagoon treated salineÀsodic industrial effluent was applied from 2002-2005 to a 0.4-ha Chihuahuan Desert shrubland to assess the deposition and recovery of effluent components and changes in soil quality vis-à -vis a non-irrigated area. Effluent irrigation supplied 26% of the average annual nonstressed evapotranspiration (ET) of the native shrubs [Larrea tridentata (DC.) Coville and Prosopis glandulosa Torr. var. glandulosa], and increased both soil stress factors (sodicity, salinity, and pH) and soil fertility (N, P, and K). After 3 yr, the soil saturation extract electrical conductivity (EC e ) reached as high as 6.1 dS m À1 and Cl À 76 mol c m À3 at 105 cm depth under irrigated L. tridentata. After 4 yr, saturation extract sodium adsorption ratio (SAR e ) reached 25-35 at 7.5 cm under the irrigated shrubs and intershrub spaces. There were 27 Mg ha À1 of cumulative ionic deposits to the site comprised mostly of Na þ , Cl À , and CaCO 3 equivalent alkalinity, with soil analysis recovering most of the deposits (>57%) except for K þ and Na þ (8% to 13%). Subsurface leaching of NO À 3 À N and P was detected within the upper 1 m soil depth after 4 yr, and a high downward mobility of Cl À revealed the potential for deeper NO À 3 À N leaching at higher N loading rates. While long-term effects on the natural vegetation are unknown, results contribute to a limited scientific database for sustainable wastewater land application in semiarid regions.
As the population of southwestern New Mexico expands, land application of industrial and municipal wastewater is increasingly seen as a cost‐effective and environmentally safe water management technique. Yet virtually no management guidelines exist for scheduling land application of wastewater in semi‐arid climates of the United States. This article describes a web‐based methodology for scheduling wastewater irrigation in the Chihuahuan Desert. It also details how to input data that are specific to the region and climate into a spreadsheet program to schedule wastewater irrigation at rates that avoid adverse effects to the application site. A website helps utility managers outside of New Mexico use the methodology. An irrigation schedule created by this technique was tested over three years in Las Cruces, N.M. The land application was designed to maximize vegetative cover to increase the capacity of a site to serve as a sink for wastewater contaminants, minimize salt accumulation in the root zone, and avoid nitrate leaching into the groundwater. The step‐by‐step instructions provided here help utilities eliminate the guesswork of how much and when to apply water in a land application process.
Impacts of wastewater land application on desert vegetation are not adequately known. In a 4-yr field study, we evaluated the effects of treated, salineÀsodic industrial effluent application on the aboveground vegetation biomass and mineral accumulation of a Chihuahuan Desert shrubland. The vegetation included two shrubs, Larrea tridentata (DC.) Coville and Prosopis glandulosa Torr. var. glandulosa, and seven herbaceous species in the intershrub spaces. Early summer fruit dry weights on terminal branches of the irrigated shrubs were 3 to 14 times higher than those on the non-irrigated shrubs. The combined irrigated vegetation produced 2 Mg of additional dried biomass per ha above that of the non-irrigated plot, and contained excesses of total Kjeldahl-N (TKN) and Ca 2þ equivalent to 18% of effluent N deposition and 12% of effluent Ca 2þ deposition. Under irrigated and highly sodic conditions (soil sodium adsorption ratio up to 35), the herbaceous Lepidium alyssoides A. Gray var. alyssoides produced the highest biomass of all plant species. However, there was a decline in plant species diversity as L. alyssoides became dominant in the irrigated intershrub spaces. While the findings demonstrate the natural attenuation of effluent minerals by native Chihuahuan Desert vegetation, highly sodic conditions may alter the composition of the vegetation community.
In order to carry out an optimal daily irrigation scheduling for a grapevine in a pot under drip irrigation by lysimeter, a great amount of data have to be treated. The majority of data are about monitored weight variations. The rest of the data are about some climatic variables (reference evapotranspiration ETo and rainfall). This daily irrigation programming is traditionally based on physicalmathematical models (soil water balance, radiation or drainage among others). This is a Model-Driven methodology. In this paper, several Model-Driven methodologies for data management are compared and the appropriate methodology is proposed. The experiment was developed in an experimental vineyard located in Orihuela (SE Spain). For this purpose, a lysimeter designed for crops in a pot with three cell charges and a datalogger was installed. Representative data of a vineyard variety (Bobal in 110R) were collected for three months during 2012. In the experiment, drip irrigation of a grapevine in a pot was monitored. Data about weight variations of the crop and irrigation water management were collected. These data were subsequently analysed by statistical techniques that are oriented to determine the adequate data treatment. This methodology will be used in the development of applied algorithms in software for decision tools in irrigation programming for vineyard production.
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