Coping with salinity in irrigated agriculture: crop evapotranspiration and water management issues

ReviewSoil and water salinity and associated problems are a major challenge for global food production. Strategies to cope with salinity include a better understanding of the impacts of temporal and spatial dynamics of salinity on soil water balances vis-à-vis evapotranspiration (ET) and devising optimal irrigation schedules and efficient methods. Both steady state and transient models are now available for predicting salinity effects on reduction of crop growth and means for its optimization. This paper presents a brief review on the different approaches available, focusing on the FAO56 framework for coping with the effects of soil salinity on crop ET and yields. The FAO56 approach, applied widely in soil water balance models, is commonly used to compute water requirements, including leaching needs. It adopts a daily stress coefficient (Ks) representing both water and salt stresses to adjust the crop coefficient (Kc) when it is multiplied by the grass reference ETo to obtain the actual crop ET values for saline environments (ETc act=Ks Kc ETo). The same concept is also applied to the dual Kc approach, with Ks used to adjust the basal crop coefficient (Kcb). A review on applications of Ks is presented showing that the FAO56 approach may play an interesting role in water balance computations aimed at supporting irrigation scheduling. Transient state models, through alternative formulations, provide additional solutions for quantification of the salinity build-up in the root zone. These include irrigation-induced salinity, upward movement of salts from saline ground water-table, and sodification processes. Regardless of the approach, these models are now very much capable of supporting irrigation water management in saline stress conditions. For maintaining crop growth under salinity environments, soil-crop-water management interventions consistent with site-specific conditions are then discussed. Adequateness of irrigation methods, cyclic uses of multi-salinity waters and proper irrigation scheduling are further analyzed as examples of efficient means to obviate the effects of salinityinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Performance analysis of two typical greenhouse lettuce production systems: Commercial hydroponic production and traditional soil cultivation

Introduction: Due to the shortage of land and water resource, optimization of systems for production in commercial greenhouses is essential for sustainable vegetable supply. The performance of lettuce productivity and the economic benefit in greenhouses using a soil-based system (SBS) and a hydroponic production system (HPS) were compared in this study. Methods: Experiments were conducted in two identical greenhouses over two growth cycles (G1 and G2). Three treatments of irrigation volumes (S1, S2, and S3) were evaluated for SBS while three treatments of nutrient solution concentration (H1, H2, and H3) were evaluated for HPS; the optimal levels from each system were then compared. Results and discussion: HPS was more sensitive to the effects of environmental temperature than SBS because of higher soil buffer capacity. Compared with SBS, higher yield (more than 134%) and higher water productivity (more than 50%) were observed in HPS. We detected significant increases in ascorbic acid by 28.31% and 16.67% and in soluble sugar by 57.84% and 32.23% during G1 and G2, respectively, compared with SBS. However, nitrate accumulated in HPS-grown lettuce. When the nutrient solution was replaced with fresh water 3 days before harvest, the excess nitrate content of harvested lettuce in HPS was removed. The initial investment and total operating cost in HPS were 21.76 times and 47.09% higher than those in SBS, respectively. Consideration of agronomic, quality, and economic indicators showed an overall optimal performance of the H2 treatment. These findings indicated that, in spite of its higher initial investment and requirement of advanced technology and management, HPS was more profitable than SBS for commercial lettuce production

Fruit load governs transpiration of olive trees

We tested the hypothesis that whole-tree water consumption of olives (Olea europaea L.) is fruit load-dependent and investigated the driving physiological mechanisms. Fruit load was manipulated in mature olives grown in weighing-drainage lysimeters. Fruit was thinned or entirely removed from trees at three separate stages of growth: early, mid and late in the season. Tree-scale transpiration, calculated from lysimeter water balance, was found to be a function of fruit load, canopy size and weather conditions. Fruit removal caused an immediate decline in water consumption, measured as whole-plant transpiration normalized to tree size, which persisted until the end of the season. The later the execution of fruit removal, the greater was the response. The amount of water transpired by a fruit-loaded tree was found to be roughly 30% greater than that of an equivalent low- or nonyielding tree. The tree-scale response to fruit was reflected in stem water potential but was not mirrored in leaf-scale physiological measurements of stomatal conductance or photosynthesis. Trees with low or no fruit load had higher vegetative growth rates. However, no significant difference was observed in the overall aboveground dry biomass among groups, when fruit was included. This case, where carbon sources and sinks were both not limiting, suggests that the role of fruit on water consumption involves signaling and alterations in hydraulic properties of vascular tissues and tree organs.</p

Determining threshold values for root-soil water weighted plant water deficit index based smart irrigation

Trabajo desarrollado bajo la financiación del proyecto “Soil Hydrology research platform underpinning innovation to manage water scarcity in European and Chinese cropping Systems” (773903), coordinado por José Alfonso Gómez Calero, investigador del Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (IAS).Plant water deficit index (PWDI) represents the extent of water stress by relating soil moisture to the ability of a plant to take up water including consideration of the relative distribution of soil water to roots. However, for a smart irrigation decision support system, we are challenged in determining reliable thresholds of PWDI to initiate irrigation events to achieve predetermined yield and/or water use efficiency (WUE) targets. Taking drip irrigated maize and sprinkler irrigated alfalfa as examples, field experiments were conducted to investigate the choice and effects of PWDI thresholds. The results indicated that, with increasing PWDI thresholds, irrigation times and quantity of water, as well as crop transpiration, growth, and yield, were all significantly limited while WUE was enhanced except under extremely stressed conditions. To disconnect the unpredictable effects of other factors, yield and WUE were normalized to their corresponding potential values. Within the experimentally determined range of PWDI, relative yield and WUE were described with linear functions for maize, and linear and quadratic functions for alfalfa, allowing identification of the most efficient threshold value according to the objective parameter of choice. The method described can be adopted in smart irrigation decision support systems with consideration of spatial variability and after further verification and improvement under more complicated situations with various crop types and varieties, environmental conditions, cultivation modes, and wider or dynamic PWDI thresholds allowing regulated deficit irrigation.This research was supported partly by National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFE0118100, 2016YFD0200303), National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1706211, 51790532), Special Fund for Scientific Research in the Public Interest (201411009), and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Project SHui, grant agreement No 773903.Peer reviewe

Medieval Emergencies and the Contemporary Debate

Abstract The contemporary debate on emergencies and the state of exception often relies on historical examples. Yet, the most recent discussions on the state of exception (a legal construct that deals with emergencies) also assume its modern inception. This article shows that medieval France formulated its own state of exception, meant to deal with emergencies, based on the legal principle of necessity. This article has two purposes. First, it challenges the historical narrative inherent in the contemporary debate, which assumes the modern inception of the state of exception. Second, it reinforces the trepidation with which many scholars today view the uses and abuses of the state of exception. This article does so by showing that the French crown used and abused the medieval principle of necessity in ways similar to current uses of the state of exception; it served similar purposes. Just as some scholars fear today, the French medieval state of exception often served as a pretext meant to change the legal order, turning the exception into the ordinary. The French crown used the state of exception to enhance its power, and it was central in the long process of building the early-modern French state

Water quality in agriculture: Risks and risk mitigation

Edited by: Pay Drechsel, Sara Marjani Zadeh, and Francisco Pedrero SalcedoWater quality is of paramount importance for human lives, food production, and nature, and of concern where agricultural pollution, salinization, or lack of adequate wastewater treatment transform water from a resource into a potential hazard. This is in particular the case in many low- and middle-income countries water treatment is not keeping pace with population growth and urbanization resulting in about 30 million hectares of agricultural land, home to over 800 million residents, irrigated with polluted water. In addition to irrigated crop production, animal husbandry and aquaculture may be greatly affected by poor water quality, and can also contribute significantly to water quality degradation. These challenges prompted the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to publish in 1976 a benchmark publication entitled Water Quality for Agriculture, followed in 1992 by Wastewater Treatment and Use in Agriculture. Over the ensuing 30 years, water quality challenges have grown resulting in a plethora of new research on water pollution, risk assessments and risk mitigation, as well as various sets of new water reuse guidelines. Based on this premise, FAO, in partnership with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), began production of a review of current water quality guidelines, resulting in this one-volume handbook for evaluating the suitability of water for crop irrigation, livestock and fish production. The publication emphasizes good agricultural practices, including risk mitigation measures suitable for the contexts of differently resourced countries and institutions. With a focus on the sustainability of the overall system, it also covers possible downstream impacts of farm-level decisions. Water Quality in Agriculture: Risks and Risk Mitigation is intended for use by farm and project managers, extension officers, consultants and engineers to evaluate water quality data and identify potential problems and solutions related to water quality, but will also be of value to the scientific research community and studentsThis work started in 2020 under the CGIAR Research Programme on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), and was further supported by the CGIAR initiative on “Resilient Cities through Sustainable Urban and Peri-urban Agrifood Systems” and the CGIAR Fund DonorsPeer reviewe

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Leveraging Sustainable Irrigated Agriculture via Desalination: Evidence from a Macro-Data Case Study in Israel

Israel has been a global frontrunner in (a) irrigation water application efficiency; (b) utilization of non-conventional (recycled and brackish) water supplies containing salts for irrigation; and recently (c) large-scale seawater desalination to provide water. Irrigation with water high in salts in many dry regions has been shown to be non-sustainable, mostly due to contamination of soils, subsoils, and groundwater resulting from the application and leaching of salts. We hypothesized that the move to desalination would reverse prior problematic trends of salinization and provide a path to sustainable irrigated agriculture in Israel and similar environments. To investigate effects of desalination in Israel on the status of salinity trends, we evaluated citrus leaf sodium, chloride, and magnesium in the years since the onset of large-scale national desalination in 2008 and examined fresh produce in the country for sodium and magnesium. We found remarkable reversal of previous trends until 2006, when salinity was found to rise consistently, in the recent data showing decreases of 20, 34, and 30% for Na, Cl, and Mg, respectively. A tendency for Israeli produce to be high in concentrations of salts compared to international standards was also reversed following large-scale desalination. Sodium in Israeli fresh produce is no longer much higher than that expected in equivalent sources in the USA while magnesium is lower in Israel fruits and vegetables compared to USDA standards. We present these results and trends to support the argument that desalination can allow and promote sustainable irrigated agriculture in the world’s dry areas