The effect of mineral-ion interactions on soil hydraulic conductivity

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe reuse of winery wastewater (WW) could provide an alternative water source for vineyard irrigation. The shift of many wineries and other food processing industries to K + -based cleaners requires studies on the effects of K + on soil hydraulic conductivity (HC). Depending on clay content and mineral composition, K + additions can affect the HC either positively or negatively. Soil mineralogy was anticipated to exhibit a strong influence on HC responses and, therefore, soils of contrasting mineralogy were evaluated for changes in soil HC resulting from applications of solutions elevated in Na + and K + . To examine the impact of mineral-ion relationships on HC, soils dominant in montmorillonite, vermiculite, or kaolinite from the Napa and Lodi wine regions of California, were packed into soil columns to observe changes in leachate chemistry and HC. Irrigation with Na + -and K + -rich WW was simulated by applying solutions at sodium absorption ratio (SAR) values of 3, 6, and 9 and potassium absorption ratio (PAR) values of 1, 2, 4, and 9. While HC was reduced in the 2:1 clay soils (montmorillonite and vermiculite) for all SAR treatments, the vermiculite and the kaolinite rich soils exhibited equal or greater reductions in HC for PAR treatments, as compared with the SAR treatments. Findings from this evaluation of the interaction of Na + and K + with three different mineral soils suggest that the reuse of WW with increasing PAR are least problematic for montmorillonite dominated soils and most detrimental to the HC of the vermiculite dominated soil. The presence of minerals with a high affinity for K + (e.g., vermiculite, mica) in this soil suggest that the interlayer binding of K + could lead to greater reductions in HC. Full analysis of soil and WW is recommended prior to all land applications.

Accounting for potassium and magnesium in irrigation water quality assessment

“…c threshold concentration (TEC). The TEC is a widely adopted, convenient measure of the impact of cations on soil permeability (Buelow et al 2015;Quirk 2001;Shainberg and Letey 1984). Accordingly, we tested Equation (3) as a diagnostic water quality parameter by examining how well it correlates with TEC values we calculated (table 4) using laboratory data reported by Jayawardane et al (2011) and Arienzo et al (2012) for a Sodosol from the Riverina region of Australia which had been irrigated with winery wastewater (Smith et al 2015).…”

“…However, the high salinity and sodium (Na) concentrations characteristic of recycled wastewaters pose a significant challenge to their sustainable reuse for crop production (Assouline et al 2015;Laurenson et al 2012;Grismer 2014a, 2014b). Adding to this challenge, several recent studies (Arienzo et al 2012;Buelow et al 2015;Marchuk et al 2013;Rengasamy and Marchuk 2011;Smith et al 2015) have documented deleterious effects on soil hydraulic properties caused by high concentrations of potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg), which are typical of recycled wastewaters (Buelow et al 2015;Laurenson et al 2012;Weber et al 2014). The potential consequences include negative impacts on infiltration, water availability and plant growth.…”

“…Although this ordering of negative impacts on soil hydraulic properties among the four cations was documented quantitatively 60 years ago (Quirk and Schofield 1955) and has often been discussed in reviews (Keren 1984;Levy 2012), it has not yet been incorporated into standard irrigation water quality criteria. As noted by Rengasamy and Marchuk (2011) and Buelow et al (2015), the need to do this has become urgent because of increasing need to reuse wastewaters for irrigation, which is expected to grow exponentially in California during the next few decades (Weber et al 2014).…”

“…The potential consequences include negative impacts on infiltration, water availability and plant growth. Buelow et al (2015), who investigated California soils, in particular have called for further research to understand the high-risk scenarios that may arise when irrigating with potassium-rich wastewaters. We note in passing that recycled wastewaters are not the only concern of the kind discussed here.…”

Poplar growth and wood production on a grassland irrigated for decades with potato starch wastewater

“…The potato processing industry produces 8-28 9 10 3 L of wastewater per every 1000 kg of raw potatoes (Charmley et al 2006). Wastewater reuse in agriculture irrigation is a common practice (Aryal and Reinhold 2015;Buelow et al 2015). About 20 million ha of land worldwide are irrigated with wastewater (Hamilton et al 2011).…”