Assessing the Effect of Salinity on Relative Crop Yield Through the Use of Irrigation
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Assessing the effect of salinity on relative crop yield through the use of irrigation and drainage model CSUID Victor Obando Civil and Geomatics Engineering, California State University, Fresno WRPI USDA Internship April 2016 – May 2017 Advisor: Dr. Fayzul K. Pasha Associate Professor, Civil and Geomatics Engineering Lyles College of Engineering California State University, Fresno Submitted: May 31, 2017 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the California State University, Fresno for allowing me to fulfill my dream of being a Civil Engineering student here. I would also like to thank Water Resources Policy Initiatives (WRPI) and Civil Engineering Department for providing the necessary resources to complete my internship. To all my friends and family for helping me to keep my stress level low. Most of all, I am fully indebted to Dr. Fayzul Pasha, my internship supervisor and student advisor, for his understanding, patience, and encouragement for pushing me to do better and providing me the opportunity for this internship. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ i Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... ii Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................... iii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ iv List of Figures .................................................................................................................................v Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1 Background ..........................................................................................................................1 Motivation ............................................................................................................................1 Objective ..............................................................................................................................2 Literature Review ..........................................................................................................................3 Effect of Salinity on Crop Yield ..........................................................................................3 Olive Field Plant Physiology ...............................................................................................9 Study Area ....................................................................................................................................23 Application of CSUID to Olive ...................................................................................................27 CSUID Model Description ................................................................................................27 Model Development for Olive Field ..................................................................................27 Model Runs ........................................................................................................................29 Impacts of Salinity .............................................................................................................31 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................39 Reference ......................................................................................................................................40 ii ABBREVIATIONS CSUF California State University Fresno CSUID Colorado State University Irrigation & Drainage EC Electrical Conductivity ET Evapotranspiration LF Leaching Fraction USDA United States Department of Agriculture WRPI Water Resources and Policy Initiatives UAL University Agricultural Lab iii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: List of Combinations ..................................................................................................................... 30 Table 2: Relative Crop Yields at Different Combinations of Salinity Levels ................................................ 37 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Fresno State University Agricultural Laboratory (Source: Google Earth) .................................... 23 Figure 2: Study Area - Olive Fields (Source: Google Earth) ......................................................................... 23 Figure 3: Olive Field Close-Up (Source: Google Earth) ............................................................................... 24 Figure 4: Irrigation Pump at Olive Field ...................................................................................................... 25 Figure 5: Single Olive Tree at the Olive Field .............................................................................................. 25 Figure 6: Olive Trees in a Row..................................................................................................................... 26 Figure 7: CSUID Main Window .................................................................................................................... 28 Figure 8: Soil Parameters (Quinn 2015) ...................................................................................................... 29 Figure 9: Model using 0.2 dS/m .................................................................................................................. 31 Figure 10: Model using 5 dS/m ................................................................................................................... 31 Figure 11: Model Using 0.3 dS/m ............................................................................................................... 32 Figure 12: Model Using 0.4 dS/m ............................................................................................................... 32 Figure 13: Model Using 0.5 dS/m ............................................................................................................... 33 Figure 14: Model Using 1.0 dS/m ............................................................................................................... 33 Figure 15: Model Using 1.5 dS/m ............................................................................................................... 34 Figure 16: Model Using 2.0 dS/m ............................................................................................................... 34 Figure 17: Model Using 2.5 dS/m ............................................................................................................... 35 Figure 18: Model Using 3.0 dS/m ............................................................................................................... 35 Figure 19: Model Using 3.5 dS/m ............................................................................................................... 36 Figure 20: Model Using 4.0 dS/m ............................................................................................................... 36 Figure 21: Model Using 4.5 dS/m ............................................................................................................... 37 Figure 22: Impact of Irrigation Salinity on Relative Crop Yield vs Salinity for Set 1.................................... 38 Figure 23: Impact of Irrigation Salinity on Relative Crop Yield vs Salinity for Set 2.................................... 38 v INTRODUCTION Background Since the San Joaquin River is the main source of water used for irrigation in the Central Valley of California it is important for farmers to understand how the change of salt concentration in the water can influence their crop production. Due to the unique geological conditions in the San Joaquin Valley, the salinity level in the groundwater has risen higher making it difficult to reuse the groundwater without desalination. When farmers use the water from San Joaquin River to irrigate their crop fields, they need to be aware of the high concentration of salt that the water may contain. The high concentration of salt can reduce the crop yield of specific crops that are not able to tolerate the level of salt concentration in the water. With this in mind, the farmers need to either manage which crops have higher tolerance so that they can use this water to irrigate the crops without effecting the crop yield. Motivation Salt management is an alternative to the expensive desalination of the irrigation. Salt management requires identifying the levels of salt tolerance in the crops. This would put crops in categories that would go from crops that are highly sensitive or in other words, has a lower tolerance to salt concentration and others that have higher tolerance to it. This would require studying the tolerance of each crop and how the crop yield would be affected due to each level of salt concentration. This can be done by observing the plant physiology of a crop. The Colorado State University Irrigation & Drainage (CSUID) model provides a way to calculate the relative crop yield at different salinity level. The CSUID can be used to graph the change in the crop yield due to the change in salinity concentration. This model can be used on different crops to view which ones have the highest salt