Agricultural Water Management
Agricultural Water Management
5 years ago

Soil properties and agro-physiological responses of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) irrigated by treated domestic wastewater

The aim of this experiment is to evaluate the effect of raw and treated wastewater irrigation on soil and plants in comparison to well water. Three plots planted with Medicago sativa L., were irrigated using water of three different qualities over a period of 9 months covering three crop seasons. Physicochemical and microbial parameters were analyzed in water and soil. Agro-physiological, biochemical and antioxidant enzyme traits in the crops were also assessed. Results of agro-physiological parameters show a positive effect on alfalfa irrigated with domestic wastewater compared to well water, while biochemical parameters (stomatal conductance, chlorophyll fluorescence and total chlorophyll content) were adversely affected in alfalfa irrigated with raw wastewater as compared to treated and well water. The plants irrigated with raw wastewater accumulate more proline and sugar than plants irrigated with treated wastewater and well water. The prevalence of antioxidant enzymes (POD, CAT and MDA) in the plants increased with raw wastewater irrigation, however, it remained within the tolerance levels in both plants irrigated by treated wastewater and well water. All three levels of water treatment demonstrated low content of heavy metals in the soil, indicating a lack of availability for the plants. Moreover, the use of treated wastewater improves physicochemical properties and fertility of the soil compared to well water and enhances crop productivity.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S0378377418300891

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.