Produced water irrigation changes the soil mesofauna community in a semiarid agroecosystem

Abstract

The scarcity of water in semiarid regions requires alternative sources for irrigation to improve agricultural production. Here, we aimed to evaluate the effects of produced water from oil exploration on the structure of soil mesofauna during the dry and rainy seasons in irrigated sunflower and castor bean fields in a Brazilian semiarid region. Three irrigation treatments were applied on plots cultivated with castor beans and sunflowers: produced water treated by filtration (filtrated) or treated by reverse osmosis (reverse osmosis) and groundwater. The mesofauna under the biofuel crops was collected and identified during the dry and rainy seasons. Although the abundance and richness of the total fauna did not differ between seasons in sunflower plots, the community was altered. In castor beans, the abundance, richness, and community of mesofauna observed in plots irrigated with produced water differed from the groundwater treatment. Irrigation with produced water promotes important changes in soil fauna community that justify their assessment for the maintenance and monitoring of agroecosystems.

Biological soil attributes in oilseed crops irrigated with oilfield produced water in the semi-arid region

“…From Tables 1 and 2 it can be seen that in general the Bact populations was higher in the second crop cycle, coinciding with with rainy periods in the region (FERREIRA; WEBER; CRISÓSTOMO, 2015), and during vegetative growth, as a result of the ground cover. Lopes et al (2014), studying the effect of produced water on soil microbial activity, found a higher population density for cultivable bacteria at the flowering stage of the first cycle of the sunflower cv.…”

“…There was little change in the organic fertiliser from soil moisture (<5%) under rainfed conditions due to the low rainfall intensity in the area (FERREIRA; WEBER; CRISÓSTOMO, 2015). It is worth noting that oilseed production was only seen during the second cycle (April to July 2013), when a total of 448 mm of rain was registered.…”

“…Those authors noted changes in the proliferation of microorganisms and in nitrogenase activity after irrigation with wastewater from oil. Ferreira, Weber and Crisóstomo (2015) also noted changes in the structure of the soil mesofauna during two production cycles of the same crops irrigated with produced water. It is known that poor quality water affects the way the soil functions, leading to the suggestion that the biological parameters of an agrosystem irrigated with PW should be monitored.…”

Biodiversity of Spider and Other Arthropods Inhabiting Cowpea under Effect of Fish Culture Water and Nitrogen Fertilization and its effect on Yield and Protein at Fayoum Governorate, Egypt

“…Eid et al, (2014) published that recycling the drainage water of fish farming, rich with organic matter for agriculture use can improve soil quality and crops productivity and reduce the total costs of fertilizers by adding minimum doses from minerals fertilizers. Ferreira et al, (2015) found that irrigation with produced water promotes important changes in soil fauna structure that justify its assessment for the maintenance and monitoring of agro-ecosystems. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of how the mesofauna structure is influenced by the quality of water used for irrigation.…”

Metal contents in soils irrigated with diluted treated produced water from oil

“…However, produced water should not be applied at excessive rates to the soil surface or reused without treatment, because it may present high contents of disperse oil, total dissolved solids, inorganic chemical compounds, and heavy metals (Al-Ghouti et al, 2019), requiring previous evaluations for accumulations of potentially toxic elements in the soil and plant tissues (Ferreira et al, 2015;Pica et al, 2017;Echchelh et al, 2019).…”