Effects of Chlorination on Soil Chemical Properties and Nitrogen Uptake for Tomato Drip Irrigated with Secondary Sewage Effluent

Abstract

Chlorination is usually an economical method for treating clogging in drip emitters during sewage application. Appropriate assessment of the responses of soil and crop is essential for determining an optimal chlorination scheme. During 2008 to 2009, field experiments were conducted in a solar-heated greenhouse for tomato drip irrigated with secondary sewage effluent, to investigate the influences of chlorine injection intervals and levels on soil chemical properties and nitrogen uptake. Injection intervals ranging from two-eight weeks and injection concentrations ranging from 2-50 mg L-1 were used. A salinity factor and a nutrient factor were extracted from the pool of the nine soil chemical constituents using factor analysis method. The results demonstrated that chlorination practices increased the residual chloride in the soil, resulting in an increased salinity factor, especially for the frequent chlorination at a high injection concentration. Chlorination weakened the accumulation of nutrients factor in the upper soil layer. Nitrogen uptake of the tomato plants also was inhibited by the increased salinity in the upper soil layer caused by high chlorination levels. In order to reduce the unfavorable effect on soil chemical properties and nitrogen uptake, chlorination scheme with concentrations of lower than 20 mg L-1 was recommended.

Using Reclaimed Water for Agricultural and Landscape Irrigation in China: a Review

“…Further studies should be conducted considering the characteristics of reclaimed water more comprehensively. In addition, the effects of the practices for clogging treatment of the irrigation system, such as chlorination and acid injection, on the soil chemical properties and nitrogen uptake of crops are also of great interest for reclaimed water irrigation (Li and Li, ; Li et al ., ).…”

Nitrogen Utilization under Drip Irrigation with Sewage Effluent in the North China Plain

“…Compared with GW irrigation, SW irrigation increased plant N uptake by 7% in 2014 and 9% in 2015, on average (Table ). This indicates that the nutrient‐rich SW could contribute to elevating the crop N uptake and therefore become a highly attractive alternative for farmers (Singh et al , ; Li et al , ; Marofi et al , ). Field experiments on Bermuda grass pasture (da Fonseca et al , ) found that irrigation with secondary‐treated sewage effluent increased the dry matter and crude protein content of the above‐ground grass relative to potable water irrigation.…”

Integrative Effects of Treated Wastewater and Synthetic Fertilizers on Productivity, Energy Characteristics, and Elements Uptake of Potential Energy Crops in an Arid Agro-Ecosystem

“…It activates various enzymes involved in the metabolism of plants. Studies have shown that in soils that receive TWW for irrigation, the availability of total N, K, and available P increase considerably [52][53][54][55][56]. Similarly, Abd-Elwahed [57] and Xu et al [58] observed increased total N, available K, and P contents in the top layer of soil for irrigated plants with wastewater.…”

“…Hence, the use of TWW for irrigation improves soil fertility and the chemical and physical properties of soil [44][45][46], and can provide soils with OM and nutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, B, Zn, Cu, Mn, etc. ), thus improving crop production [17,47,54,55,59,61,62]. Wang et al [74] recorded a higher yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), maize (Zea mays L.), millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.), apples (Malus domestica), and rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) when irrigated with TWW.…”