Impact of Salinity Levels and Effective Soil Depth on Sorghum Plants Grown in Some Nile Alluvial and Calcareous Soils Under El Fayoum Conditions
Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: This work aims to evaluate the effect of both salinity levels (normalECe < 4, moderate 4-8 and saline 8-16 dS/m) and soil effective depths(shallow ≈ 55 cm, medium ≈ 80cm and deep ≈ 120cm water table depths) onsorghum productivity (Giza 15) grown during two successive seasons (2002and 2003) on a Nile alluvial soil and calcareous one under El FayoumGovernorate conditions.The obtained results revealed that the tested soil salinity levels andeffective soil depths greatly affected some soil properties, i.e., soil bulkdensity, total porosity, void ratio, air porosity, pore size distribution, waterretention and transmission in the studied two soil sites during the twosuccessive seasons. In addition, increasing soil salinity levels causedsignificant decreases in the studied plant growth parameters, yield and itscomponents, i.e., plant height, panicle length, weight of 1000 grains, proteincontent % and grain yield, which reached 36.98, 32.27, 20.45, 29.95 and57.46% at the Nile alluvial soil vs 36.76, 33.31, 24.05, 33.75 and 59.14% atthe calcareous one, respectively, when soil salinity levels increased from S1(normal soil) to S3 (saline soil).Also, decreasing the studied effective soil depths led to deteriorate allthe aforementioned soil properties and grown plant parameters, wherereducing effective soil depths from deep to shallow water table led todecrease plant height, panicle length, weight of 1000 grain, grain proteincontent and yield by 32.48, 24.13, 11.64, 11.78, and 86.55% in the Nilealluvial soil vs 34.2, 18.19, 11.97, 16.51 and 86.18% in the calcareous soil,respectively. The negative interaction effect between soil salinity levels oreffective soil depth and plant parameters in the studied soils were clearlydefined. So, it should maintain soil salinity at low level and effective soildepth at deep water table depth for producing high sorghum grain yield withsatisfactory quality.
Institution: Fayoum University
Language: English
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDGs: Zero hunger, Life on land
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W3209701124