Do Precision Chemical Amendment Applications Impact Sodium Movement in Dryland Semiarid Saline Sodic Soils?

Authors

Tulsi P. Kharel, Cornell University
David E. Clay, South Dakota State UniversityFollow
Cheryl Reese, South Dakota State UniversityFollow
Thomas DeSutter, North Dakota State University--FargoFollow
Doug D. Malo, South Dakota State UniversityFollow
Sharon Clay, South Dakota State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2018

Abstract

Expanding sodicity and salinity problems have placed many northern Great Plains (NGP) soils at the sustainability tipping point. This study assessed the impact of chemical restoration on water and salt transport in undisturbed soil columns collected from three hillslope model landscape positions. The backslope (Redfield), footslope (White Lake), and toeslope (Pierpont) soils had moderate (3.27 ± 0.59), high (7.3 ± 3.34), and very high (13.29 ± 3.2) sodium adsorption ratio (SAR_e) values, respectively. The soils were treated with KBr and one of four soil amendments (none, H₂SO₄, CaSO₄, and CaCl₂). The rapid movement of Br⁻through the columns suggested that bypass water flow occurred. In addition, a comparison with widely used salinity models (final EC = 0.8 × initial EC/pore volume [PV]) underestimated the leaching requirements by 69, 79, and 41% in the backslope, footslope, and toeslope soils. In the footslope soils with high SAR values, H₂SO₄ was more effective at promoting Na⁺leaching than gypsum or CaCl₂. However, in back slope and toeslope soils with moderate and very high SAR values, the chemical amendments were not, and were equally effective at facilitating Na⁺ leaching, respectively. These findings suggest that chemical amendments should target treatments to problem areas, and that bypass flow can influence their effectiveness. The LOESS regression model suggested that the electrical conductivity (EC_e)/SAR_e ratio was useful for assessing Na⁺ risks, and that to maintain a water flow rate of 1 mm h^–1 in a soil with a SAR_e value of 1, an EC_e value of ≥2 was required.

Publication Title

Agronomy Journal

Volume

110

Issue

3

First Page

1103

Last Page

1110

DOI of Published Version

10.2134/agronj2017.07.0416

Publisher

American Society of Agronomy

Rights

Copyright © 2018 by the American Society of Agronomy

Recommended Citation

Kharel, Tulsi P.; Clay, David E.; Reese, Cheryl; DeSutter, Thomas; Malo, Doug D.; and Clay, Sharon, "Do Precision Chemical Amendment Applications Impact Sodium Movement in Dryland Semiarid Saline Sodic Soils?" (2018). Agronomy, Horticulture and Plant Science Faculty Publications. 66.
https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/plant_faculty_pubs/66

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Comments

This is an open access article originally published in Published in Agron. J. 110:1103–1110 (2018) doi:10.2134/agronj2017.07.0416