PEDOLOGICAL STUDIES ON SOILS IRRIGATED FROM DIFFERENT WATER SOURCES IN THE AREA NORTH EAST TANTA CITY, GHARBIA GOVERNORATE, EGYPT

Abstract

The current work was performed aiming to study the morphological, physiochemical characteristics as well as classification and capability evaluation for soils irrigated from different water sources in the area north east Tanta city, Gharbia governorate, Egypt. The study area is located in the Middle of Nile Delta between latitudes 300 45′ to 300 50′ N and longitudes 310 00′ to 310 05′ E, covering an area of about 78.97 km2 (18802.30 fed.). The area has many different irrigation water sources namely, Nile water, agricultural drainage water, waste and sewage water canals. Many industrial factories discharge their waste fluids and remnants into these different canals which intermixed with their waters and could be used for irrigation of the surrounded agricultural land in the area. Ten soil profiles were chosen including: three representing the soils use the fresh Nile water, five representing the soils use the agricultural drainage water and two representing the soils use sewage water for irrigation. The land and site features are observed and registered. The soil profiles were dug, morphologically described, and then samples were collected representing the subsequent layers in each profile for integrated physical and chemical analyses. Also, water samples were collected from the different irrigation water resources for chemical analyses. The studied area has almost flat topography with deep soil profiles and freely well drained. These soils have swelling clay loam to clay texture with moderate medium to coarse angular blocky structure and mostly grayish brown color. There are no clear differences in the morphological characteristics of the studied soils irrigated with different kinds of irrigation waters. The physiochemical properties revealed that, the studied soils are moderately alkaline and nonto slightly saline. All of the soils using Nile water haven’t sodicity effect. While, most of those using drainage or sewage water have moderate sodicity effect. Organic matter (OM) is almost low and decreases with depth. The soils are slightly to moderately calcareous. Some soils from those irrigated with drainage or sewage water have relatively moderate OM and CaCO3 contents especially in the surface layers besides relatively high ESP. This could be ascribed to the interaction of factorial waste fluids and remnants in the irrigation water used for these soils. Most of the studied soil profiles haven't any diagnostic horizons, therefore they were classified under Entisols order. Some soils from those irrigated with agricultural drainage water or sewage water seem to have Natric horizons and classified under Aridisols up to sub great group level. The land capability evaluation using ASLE model indicated that, all of the studied soils are considered as a good class (C2). The quality evaluation of irrigation water samples indicates that, there is a slight restriction upon using the drainage and sewage waters for sensitive crops.