Comparative Analysis of Soil Salinity under Flat and Ridge Cultivation Methods in Citrus Orchards

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Abstract
Soil salinity is a serious and chronic environmental problem affecting both crop yields and soil quality. The Geonics EM38 approach is a commonly used device for monitoring the apparent bulk salinity of the soil-water continuum. In this study, we explored the spatio-temporal variability of soil salinity on a drip-irrigated ridge cultivation, which is an effective agronomic practice and traditionally used flat-cultivated citrus fields on two dates (starting irrigation season April, end of irrigation season November) in the eastern Mediterranean region of Turkey. The calibration models were satisfactory, with correlations over r2 0.79 for both fields. ECaH and ECaV readings by EM38 were converted to the standard soil salinity values, and so forth, average salinity increased by about 17% and 18% for flat and 20% and 27% for ridge-cultivation in the soil profile, respectively. The reason for the higher increase of the ridge plantation salinity contents obtained via the EM38 readings could be the ridges, which retained the high soil water content for a longer period of time and reduced more gradually, despite the rapid decrease of the high water content in flat cultivation after irrigation. In semi-arid locations, ridge cultivation provides superior soil salinity management. Continuous irrigation may raise the salinity of the soil in flat cultivated fields, whereas in the semi-arid Mediterranean climate, salinity may remain stable for years in ridge cultivation, possibly as a certain rate of soil salinity may be efficiently leached by winter precipitation.

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