The Effects of Saline Groundwater on Soil Properties and Yield of Three Range plants in Saline Soils

The use of saline groundwater resources, in addition to save fresh water, could be used in production of forage in saline soils. In order to do it, the area in northern Ardakan, Yazd province with saline ground water (EC= 11.25ds/m, SAR= 16.7) and saline and alkaline soil (EC=27.3ds/m, ESP= 30.2%) was selected for planting of Atriplelentiformis, Seidlitzia rosemarinus, and Nitraria schoberi. The seeds of plants were collected from different areas of Yazd province, and were planted in nylon pots in greenhouse and transplanted as split plot statistical design in the field after one month. Based on the potential evapotranspiration of the region, the plants were irrigated as furrow design with leaching fraction (LF) = 0.3, and in 10 and 20 days intervals. After six months, plants were cut from near the soil surface and dried in oven at 60 °C for 72 hours. The dry matter of each plant weighted and analyzed statistically. The results indicated that there are some significant differences between dry matter of plants and the irrigation periods. Among plants, Atriplex lentiformis, with ten days period of irrigation had the best yield in this experiment. In addition, LF of 0.3 could decrease the salinity of the surface soil layers. This reduction was higher than in ten days period of irrigation.