Dear Colleague, excessive electrical conductivity in soil is caused by excess of salts and can indicate soil salinization. The main problem with salinization is damage to root system with consequent prejudice in nutrient and water absorption process. To fight the problem you must try to eliminate excess of salts in your soil. One alternative is excessive irrigation to cause leaching, if you have enough water available and your soil is well drained. Addition of organic matter or clay can also help by adsorption of cations in the CEC. Another alternative is the use of salt tolerant plants , that can grow in such conditions accumulating salt. Later you harvest the plants and put them away to remove salt from your area.
As i know, high electrical conductivity of a soil solution represents the excess of cations in the soil solution. It will depend on your soil type. I used clam loam textured soil with organic matters, and in my case i added HCl in the soil solution and EC of the soil solution was increased. I think you can check by adding NaOH... or just increase the pH of soil and then check the EC of soil solution.
in this condition, It is a little bit difficult for me to explain disadvantages of Increase in EC, please tell me the conditions of your experiment or your purpose behind this EC increase,,,, then i will be able to explain if possile...
please also let me know about your soil type,,,, and after adding NaOH.... results ,,,,,,,,,,,,
Hi, buddies.
Anyway the question is how to reduce the EC rate and not the PSI. This difference is important.
In general, when we have a soil with high EC, the soil must washed with water of quality. Because EC is based on cations which can be soluted in water such as Ca^+2, Mg^+.
The consequences? It depends on your soil and I can´t say with precision but you have risk of losing certains cations and nutrients. I need to know all the data of that soil in order to know which is the best solution. Maybe that soil has algo an elevated PSI rate.
I hope that this will be useful for your purposes.
Dear Colleague, excessive electrical conductivity in soil is caused by excess of salts and can indicate soil salinization. The main problem with salinization is damage to root system with consequent prejudice in nutrient and water absorption process. To fight the problem you must try to eliminate excess of salts in your soil. One alternative is excessive irrigation to cause leaching, if you have enough water available and your soil is well drained. Addition of organic matter or clay can also help by adsorption of cations in the CEC. Another alternative is the use of salt tolerant plants , that can grow in such conditions accumulating salt. Later you harvest the plants and put them away to remove salt from your area.
I didn´t think about bioremediation, Mr. Paulo . Yeah, it´s totally possible. Anyway, I think that more data is needed to know how to sort it out.
I do not know what your soil type. But from what I understand in your question you want information on downloading and not to increase the EC is not it?
As commented colleagues will greatly depend on your soil type, however, in general should be done a soil analysis to observe the contents of Na and other exchangeable cations. Then you can choose to add organic matter.
The disadvantages of increased EC is because it may indicate that your soil is getting saline. In Brazil we have many of the semiarid soils with high contents of Na resulting from irrigation water. For us this is a very serious problem.
Success!
Please, it is necessary to know soil pH and CEC values to begin a discussion about.
For the problem of salt, there are two cases:
- Saline soil: it's not a big problem, you can correct it by leaching.
-but if the water is very salty, it's a big problem. in addition to leaching, you must added acid to irrigation water, install tolerant crops (in the case of tree, you can put alfalfa around trees)
I haven't heard of electrical conductivity for its own sake has a benefit. Radio engineers like to put AM and shortwave antennas in salt marshes.
For biological purposes, if the conductivity is too high, it usually means a high salt concentration and that kills vegetation. Up to a certain level nitrogen, phosphate and potassium fertilizers are salts, raise electrical conductivity and are good for the plants.
Control of pH by adding HCl or NaOH is not best options. Adding limestone to raise pH or decaying organic matter to lower the pH, both of which do other good things.
It is tough ask if the high EC comes from salts (dominating sodium). If you irrigate with good water, the soil will loose the structure (slacking). In that case, you can irrigate with water having higher Ca&Mg (gypsum can be used). In general, higher EC means, plants will fight water stress even in moist soil conditions. Towards the upper end of EC, salt will be accumulated in plant tissues that might end up casing toxicity sysmptoms. On the other hand, if EC comes from metelic elements such as AL, B etc, it will be even harder. These elements are toxic to many plants even at low concentration. Growing woody plants (trees) can help to manage such soils as it is practiced in mine-spilled area.
Salt built up in soils essentially results from arid/semiarid field conditions, high temperature, insufficient drainage,excess use of chemical fertilizers,irrigation with saline water, excessive evaporation from land which is directly exposed to direct sunshine. The reverse of these conditions is the answer to control soil salinity. The soil test data are essential to suggest remedial measures viz., pH, EC,Organic matter status,texture,soil depth,local climatic conditions. After all, it is not impossible to manage soil salinity. Phyto-remediation is a better option than chemo-remediation from the economic stand point.
I think because of using poultry waste (Chicken waste ) in soil electric conductivity goes high means at about 7.9 to 8,
Then what is the option for that to reduce the conductivity ?
Dear William ,
we can use digital electric conductivity meter - model DCM 85. And the unit is mmhos/cm.
Any type of fertilizer can increase soil EC. Increasing soil EC may cause high soil Ph that is one of the disadvantages.
Compaction also increases soil EC.
If we add any salts containing materials like heavy fertilizers, salty water in soil results in an increasing soil EC and pH.
Farm yard manures, press mud, gypsum( in saline soil), green manuring reduce the soil pH and EC which depend upon types of soils like saline soil, acidic soils, alkali soils etc.
Using more fertilizer is the main reason of high electrical conductivity and solution is leaching
higher EC hampers root growth especially imbalance in osmatic potentials in rhizosphere leads to imbalances in nutrient availability
Inclusion of basic fertilizers in soil may result in release of divalent troublesome cations release in soil and disturbs osmatic potential of soil n roots.....better way to get rid of it is going for geen manuring prior to core crop
Electrical conductivity is generally used as an indication of salt concentration in soil solution or in nutrient solution - it increases as concentration increases and decreases as salt (or nutrient) concentration decreases. An easy way do decrease EC is by increasing the water content or decreasing salt concentration.
Dear Ezio Paulo,
What is new in your what you posted as to how to manage salinity
Reclaiming saline soil is done by leaching requirement application through irrigation and monitoring soil EC afterward to see how far the EC reduction take place in the root zone , it is always said that farmers have to adapt with soil salinity by leaching and phytoremediation
Kindly refer to a recent publication in Jour. Instrum. Soc. India, Vol.42, No. 1 , March 2012, pages21/22, by Bharati Dass AND A.K. Rai mss ' Soil Electrical Conductivity'
Leaching the soil with water decreased the electrical conductivity of soil.
Increase of electrical conductivity leed to decreased of crop yield
Chemicalization of farming and arid to semiarid climatic conditions lead to unusual salt built up in soils which in turn affect plant growth and development including seed germination due to higher osmotic pressure in soil solution and plasmolysis in plants i.e., reverse flow of nutrients from plant to soil solution. and consequential growth retardation and death of plants. With this background, it is easier to plan for removal of excessive salts by providing perfect drainage either by irrigation water or rainwater adopting efficient water management practices. Any text book on soil science could provide this information souight for and it is needless to say "Research Gate" should not be used for exchanging academic knowledge. It should lay stress more on specific location problems and issues than allowing class room teaching such as this topic.
Unless a specific query comes on my comments, i do not feel like discussing the matter further. I am a Physicist with interest and experience in analysing surfaces and modifying them to cater to desired properties.
I conducted a lysimeter experiment to observe soil salinity at the root zone , the main findings was that EC drastically reduced after two years from highly saline to non-saline soil due to phytoremediation using barley as a salt tolerant crop and also leaching by suitable leaching fraction of 0.16-0.18. It is very important to estimate correctly the water consumptive use so that leaching will be occurred and the drainage condition should be also occurred through an active drainage system.
Dear Eman,
i am not able to follow your comment and any query therein for me to respond.My earlier comments stand.
Calcium sulfate +leaching reduced electrical conductivity of soil ( alkaline or saline soils )
increasing of electirical conductivity lead to decreasing yield
It may interest you to look up mss ' soil electrical conductivity- a tool for precision farming by bharati dass & a.k. Rai,
Thank you Dr. Nath for the information and i am sourly interest in such helpful site and thanks again
To reduce or enhance electric conductivity of the soil, one may make use of adding sand to reduce conductivity and adding clay bto increase the conductivity. Silt materials have in between conductivity between sand and clay and can thus be used to balance conductivity as per needs.
From an edaphological perspective, it is not the electrical conductivity that is bad for plants, but high conductivity is an indicator of soil conditions that may be detrimental to many plants. Many replies to your query have indicated the nature of the soil conditions that are potentially harmful for plants.
EC (electrical conductivity) of soil is mainly about the soil solution which contain salt ions and it depend on ion mobility and charge and specific conductance
Besides these relevent information about CEC, salt, organic matter, clay/sand, I'd lilke to add that electric conductivity in soils is also correlated to soil compaction (compaction increase conductivity,), and soil temperature : an increase in temperature of 1°C increases conductivity by about 2% (between 0 and 25°C)
I think that the the most suitable material is organic matter. We have very good results dfter using Excell-Orga (Organic fertilizer from France). This fertilizer (guano and fish compost)is appropriate for organic farming olso.
some time organic matter increase EC due to mobility of H+ ion specially if the soil pH is relatively high
Dear ,
if you want to reduced the EC through only management practices like leaching with good water, scrapping and selection of salt resistant crops and or varieties.I think its can't control through chemical. you can search the website of CSSRI, Karnal for more details
Excess salt in soils can be controlled by growing diverse crops in rotation as they absorbe salts many of them being nutrients themselves. Further, provision of good drainage is essential particularly in fine textured soils. Remember a thumb rule " Salt is a necessary evil" as it is not possible to exclude it. It has to be maintained at safe level through management techniques which are already known and well established.
As a physicist, i can only contribute by letting soil scientist know the effectiveness of EDXRF technique for multi-elemental non-destructive analysis technique. It tells all elemental composition in ppm level in one go for even a small sample of less than a gram. Subsequent analysis after soil treatment can also be investigated similarly. The technique was available at the Physics Depts. of Kurukshetra, Punjab and Punjabi Universities till a few years back and NDRI, Karnal scientist may find it convenient to approach any of them through the Vice Chancellors of these Universities
All contributions to this discussion are valuable and benefited immensely. Thank you all my professional colleague
Increase in electrical conductivity of soil beyond safe permissible limit of 2 dS per metre reflects that the soil is saline and requires desalinization by flooding the ploughed land with good quality irrigation water and providing good drainage to leachout the water soluble salts off the cultivated land to be reclaimed. If neglected, saline land would turn sodic which is difficult to reclaim.
Electric conductivity is a measurement of soluble salts in soil. Although the grown plants require nutrients for plant growth, but excess salts could be toxic for plants. Increasing salinity means decreasing the water potential thus the grown plants require more energy for water absorption from soil. It is clear that soil salinity (or in other means increasing the electrical conductivity) reflects the adverse effects on plant productivity therein. The second point is the presence of water soluble excess salts which should be removed out of the soil subsurface through soil leaching, but I think, there must be another way, may be through the stimulation the formation of insoluble salts , by means of causing imbalance in the chemical composition of soil solution and directing the reactions towards the formation of insoluble salts by means of special agents, how, it needs more research and a complete view for what happens in soil.
There is no need to add anything to saline soil such as elemental sulphur since water soluble salts are already high in soil and it does not make any sense to add any other chemical substance. Simply use good quality water to drain off the salts from the saline land. The salinity has to be addressed quickly to avoid future possibility of soils turning to sodic.
In addition to leaching , it is also recommended to use phytoremediation by salt tolerant crops as a environmental friendly way to reduce salt from soil .
YES Mr. Eman Aljanabi. Salt tolerant crops such as tomato, brinjal, grassy fodder crops, finger millet are the crops which can be grown which would also generate income for the farmers besides desalinization process. Thank you.
In semiarid region of Brazil, We usualy use gypsum to try solving this problem. Also, We cultivated Atriplix sp., which is given to animals like hay (mineral suply).
Saline soils are already saltish. As such there is no point making it more saltish by adding gypsum which is calcium sulphate dihydrate. Whereas gypsum is used to remove sodium salts in case of sodic soils by double decomposition reaction sodium sulphate is formed on addition of gypsum. Sodium sulphate being watersoluble can be easily leached out of soils by providing good drainage using good quality of water.
When excess salts are present in soil then electrical conductivity (EC) goes higher and turn to soil salinization. Literature's reported that EC can be reduces by adding organic matter, using mulches, chemical amelioration such as using gypsum, and drainage out of salts by using non –saline water. Another eco–friend strategy you can use Phytoremediation which is cost-effective. Phytoremediation technique helps to accumulate salts in plant parts and simultaneously the roots of salt tolerant plants help to leach down salts especially Na+ from root zone because root producing PCO2 during respiration. Eventually helps to release Ca2+ and replace Na+ from soil’s CEC sites.
When EC increase plants suffer from osmotic and ionic effect, as a result plant cannot uptake water and gradually die.
Clean water, clean water, & clean water, helped by soil drainage. You can get improve results using soluble Ca (for Na exchange), organic matter (for better soil structure), and S (for downing the soil pH). That's all...; then, the fundamental question is: Do you have these..?
Good question Mr Juan. When you do not have access for these inputs, ultimately I suggest for growing crops which have extreme tolerance to saline and/or sodic soil conditions. There has to be some effort to get rid off the problem just like we use doctor's prescriptions to get rid off our health problems.If there is will, there is a way.
My Company just finished a growing season in California where Total Salts (EC) was measured before planting and after harvest. Identical NPK additives were applied during the season to both the Control and Test plots (each over 100 acres).
A proprietary beneficial bacteria product from LH Organics - Soil System 1™ - was applied to the test field and resulted in a 6% decrease in Total Salts while the Control field experienced a 55% increase. The crop was Tomatoes and yield from the Test plot was 14% higher than the Control plot yield.
Of significant note from the above is that Total Salts actually decreased, despite a normal dose of NPK additives (high in Salts) being applied to each plot during the growing season.
This allows one to conclude that not only EC remediation is possible using beneficial bacteria – and, the continued application over time may ultimately eliminate residual salts in the soil profile.
Salts are in fact, benefit the crops by supplying plant nutrients except that when their concentration increases beyond the limit, salinity sets in due the salts being excessive and cause plasmolysis by which there would reverse flow of nutrients from plant to soil. This condition is detrimental for plant growth and may result in their death if uncontrolled.
Sadly, as several people have already noted, water is the ultimate salinity reduction tool (assuming that drainage is effective).
There are many products that provide claims of salinity reduction. We have tested a few in turfgrass situations and have not been able to confirm salt reduction claims. Only leaching (6 acre inches of water per acre to reduce salts by about 40%) has provided needed total dissolved salts reduction and also reduction of sodium, sulfate and chloride, three of the major components of soil salinity. Here are a few links to the reports (if claims are provided by a manufacturer, there are research methods that should be followed - here are our guidelines: http://www.paceturf.org/index.php/public/review_products_and_practices/)
Micobes for salinity reduction:
http://www.paceturf.org/index.php/journal/efficacy_of_microbes_in_soil_salinity_reduction/
Leaching and salinity reduction:
http://www.paceturf.org/index.php/journal/gypsum_vs_mined_calcium_anhydrite_for_sodium_management/
Raiinfall and salinity reduction:
http://www.paceturf.org/index.php/journal/rainfall_impact_on_sodium_leaching_at_denver_country_club/
What is there to be 'SAD' abut the assumption that water is an effective resource to desalinize soils by draining them off. Wisdom lies in preventing excessive salt accumulation in soils through crop rotation coupled with optimum drainage. In scientific expressions, there is no room for the use of the terms such as SAD. since it is unscientific and disturbing to those who read. Research Gate should not serve as a platform for such expressions in future.
I am not trying to hijack this thread into a discussion of communication and science, but I felt compelled to comment on the post above.
You have got to be kidding Kunnuthur. If we want open discussions, it has to be open and if you think that science is devoid of all emotion, that is your opinion - don't attempt to censor my expression. Unnecessary water use is sad - it isn't illegal in most locations, it isn't amoral in most societies, it is just makes people interested in water conservation sad - and that is a "good" thing - it motivates water conservation.
If drainage was the only issue, that would be different, but it requires tremendous amounts of water to reclaim a site once it has become salinated - that is wasted water due to poor drainage in the first place and poor management. in addition, the yield losses that took place during salinization are significant. Sure drainage is the key, but water is the power to move the salts. To me, wasting water to reclaim a poorly managed site is more than a simple scientific fact, it is emotional and it makes me feel sad to see salinated sites that could have been prevented.
I agree Mr Larry Stewell entirely of your last sentence " It makes me feel sad to see salinated sites that could have been prevented". YES. The crux of the problem of salinity lies in its prevention. Unfortunately, this is being neglected if not ignored by intense chemical farming, thus treating soils as the dumping ground for chemical fertilizers unmindful of their entry in to a food chain endangering the health and well being of all forms of life on Earth.
I agree to the discussion. It is important problem. needs to be addressed. the Electrical conductivity EC can be reduced only by leaching by water or uptake by plants. In maharshtra state(india) the agri dept is recommending a grass called DHENCHA (in local language) to higher uptake of salts.
But as some of fellows has recommended to use gypsum, I do not agree (with respect) . As far as literature says, gypsum will only replace Na+ by Ca+ so that it is easy to drain it by water. This is only recommended for sodic soils. After application of gypsum sodic soils will decrease pH and reduce Na+ content which are free to leached out.
In maharashtra DIRD http://www.dird-pune.gov.in/ and minor irrigation works dept both are working on rehabilitation/treatments of such soils.
The methods they have proposed are digging open trenches or sub surface drainage system installation (which is costlier).
These methods so far have given good results.
I do not want to change the direction of discussion, but as subject seems to be very close to my work, I am just putting it here.
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Soil salinity in Western Maharshtra, India region
I have done some literature review on soil salinity assessment by GIS and remote sensing. A many references point to an assessment in case where salt encrustation is found on the surface. In my study area, such salt accumulation is rare and found in very small patches. Does anyone have an idea how to identify/analyze such "irrigation induced soil salinity" by spectral signatures with landsat equivalent data.
Application of broadband remote sensing in salinity studies is restricted due to the limitations in spatial and spectral resolution and sampling bandwidth that masks detailed spectral signatures. The major problems in the detection of saline soils by remote sensing are :- First, the salts occur not only at the soil surface but also in the soil profile, which can not be detected by optical sensors. Second , the physical boundaries separating saline areas of different degrees are fuzzy. For these reasons it is not recommended to use spectral signatures with landsat equivalent data
It just crossed my mind that maybe everyone is not aware of FAO publications on water quality and soil salinity. Here are the links:
Water quality for agriculture:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/t0234e/T0234E00.htm#TOC
Salt-affected soils and their management:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/x5871e/x5871e00.htm
It is know fact that EC is the concentration of soluble salts- Cl2, SO4, CO3 etc., its concentration increases in the soil by many ways. As many pointed out that drainage with good water is simple and cost effective method than others. So that all are preferred. Addition of organic manures and plant biomass is help in reducing EC with many other beneficial effects. Each has own merits & demerits. it is site specific.
It is true that high electric conductivity can be cleaned by water drainage i.e. allowing continuous flow of water though the soil for a certain period of time. The problem with this kind of approach is lack of water in many parts of the world and poor knowledge of farmers regarding soil reactions to inputs they are using for production. The best alternative approach to this problem could be introduction of alternative technologies that would remedy the situation. The farmer or the manager could consider use of a land rotation scheme so that the land would cure itself of salt concentrations in the long run. In addition to this process, salt-loving plants, annual or perennial plants, could be introduced to affected areas that would provide benefits to the farmer and/or improve the amenity of the land as a recreational facility. One could consider introducing such plants as sago palm (where adaptable), which is a perennial crop that could grow in areas with brackish water or in soils of high electrical conductivity. The plant will greatly improve the environment while in the long run providing the farmer with an alternative source starch. In my opinion, therefore, we should think more about allowing nature to solve its own problems by allowing overly used lands to rejuvenate through land rotation schemes.
As far I know, all cations and anions present in soil are responsible for soil electrical conductivity. So if we apply large amount of gypsum (1-5 ton/ha), it might be increased electrical conductivity that means EC. My point is how soil EC decreased by gypsum application.
We should remember that the electrical conductivity of soil is predicated on the degree of salinity associated with such soil. though salinity of a soil determined by the level of anions and alkaline earth metals(cations) present in such soil but when a soil is said to be salt polluted beyond contamination then the soil is said to be higher in Chloride content among other anions. excess of salt in soil could result to biotic distortion and physicochemical distortions / imbalances in the soil. this can be ameliorated using Gypsum ( which originally is Ca and Mg) for neutrality of the soil. Also phytoadaptative approach using Halophytes for restoration can be another measure of treatment.
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