SALINITY CHANGES IN IRRIGATED AND NON IRRIGATED SOILS WITHIN MENDOZA RIVER IRRIGATED AREA

 José Morábito(1,2), Carlos Mirábile(1), Miguel Manzanera(1),

Osvaldo Cappe(2), Diego Tozzi(1) y Leandro Mastrantonio(2)

 Instituto Nacional del Agua – Centro Regional Andino (1)

Universidad Nacional de Cuyo – Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias (2)

Mendoza, Argentina

Presented by J. Perez Peña

INTRODUCTION

North Oasis of Mendoza

• Annual Rainfal 200 mm

• Irrigated by Mendoza River and Tunuyán River

• Most of the Mendoza population

• Water Uses: potable water, agriculture, recreation, power generation,

others.

• Main agriculture crops: grape, stone fruit trees, fruit trees (peaches,

plumbs, appricots, sweet cherries, pears, apples, quincy) and

vegetables (garlic, onions, tomatoes and potatoes)

Irrigated Area in Argentina 1.6 M ha

Irrigation Water 70% de toda la extracción

Irrigation efficiency 40%

Surface irrigation

Drip irrigation Both?

MAIN GOALS

Evaluate changes in soil salinity with time of cultivated and non cultivated soils in the area of Mendoza River

Identify subareas with increasing or decreasing salinity level

Provide basic information in order to design strategies of recovering affected soils by improving the natural or artificial drainage system or building new drainage canals

Provide general information for those responsible for water use and distribution in order to maintain a salinity balance in the irrigated area

MATERIALES Y MÉTODOS

Main Measured Variable

Electric conductivity (Cees [mS cm-1 25 ºC]) at 0-50 and 50-100 cm soil depth

Year1973

Year 2002

Irrigated 127 173

Non Irrigated

61 38

1973 (“Comité Conjunto de Mendoza - Agua y Energía Eléctrica, Consorcio Potrerillos”, 1975).2002 Coordenadas y salinidad del extracto de saturación de 2002 (Morábito et al., 2004).

Results and data collected were displayed on maps and analyzed according to soil status and soil depth

Non irrigated in Mendoza is the same as saying non cultivated

Este MendocinoEste Mendocino

South Region

Uco Valley

North RegionHigh Area ofMendoza River

East Region

MENDOZAVITICULTURE AREAS

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N

Estación MendozaAeropuerto El Plumerillo

Estación MendozaObservatorio PGSM

Estación Chacras de Coria

Estación San Martín

Área de Riego Río Tunuyán Inferior

ASOC. INDEPENDENCIAASOC. RIVADAVIAASOC. SAN MARTININSP. CONSTITUCIONINSP. GUEVARAINSP. MEDRANOINSP. MONTECASEROS

Zonas de Riego Río MendozaASOC. 1ª ZONAASOC. 2ª ZONAASOC. 3ª ZONAASOC. 4ª ZONAASOC. 5ª ZONAASOC. 6ª ZONA

Río Mendoza

Río TunuyánEstaciónes Meteorológicas

# Puntos de Muestreo# Eficiencia de Riego

Km5040302010010

1:550000

Sampling locations in the North Oasis

Mendoza River

Tunuyan River

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Frequency Histograms for ECes (μS cm-1) soil depth 0 a 50 cm

Non irrigated Area 1973Irrigated Area 1973

Irrigated Area 2002Non irrigated Area 2002

RESULTS

Valores de probabilidad y significancia de la prueba de Kruskal-Wallis, dentro y entre grupos, y para cada profundidad de muestreo

Nota: *=significativo y ns=no significativo, para =0,05

Variables respuesta Grupos dentro Grupos entre

CEes 0_50 (S cm-1) CEes 50_100 (S cm-1) 1973 cultivado vs inculto 0,0001 * 0,0001 * 2002 cultivado vs inculto 0,0001 * 0,0001 *

Cultivado 1973 vs 2002 0,0515 ns 0,0671 ns Inculto 1973 vs 2002 0,9684 ns 0,2395 ns

Comparison between irrigated and non Irrigated and between years

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Salinity differences in non irrigated soils for the 0-50 cm soil depth in Mendoza River area (2002-1973)

Areas where

salinity decreased

Areas where salinity increased

RESULTS

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Areas where

salinity decreased

Salinity differences in irrigated soils for the 0-50 cm soil depth in Mendoza River area (2002-1973)

Areas where salinity increased

RESULTS

CONCLUSIONS

Significant differences in ECes between cultivated and non

cultivated soil

No differences in ECes between 1973 and 2002

Irrigated areas have maintained a salinity balance within the soil probably due to low irrigation efficiencies that

contributed to fulfill the leaching fraction required

If irrigation efficiencies increase, the scenario presented here can be different and therefore this kind of study must be

repeated in the future