Sodium Adsorption Ratio and Mineral Content of Soil and Water Samples at Alseleit Agricultural Scheme

Abstract

The aim of this study was to measure sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) and minerals content for irrigation water and soil samples at AlSeleit Agricultural Scheme. Soil samples were collected from different parts of the scheme depending on the type of crop in each area. The cultivated crops include tomatoes, palm, orange, lemon, grapefruit, beans, hot pepper and three types of animal feed. Irrigation water samples were obtained from ten different pumps, withdrawing from the main Tura, a. Inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICPS), was used to measure the minerals content in soil and water samples. UV-VIS Spectrophotometry was used for determining the concentrations of anions (chloride, nitrate and sulfate) in soil and water samples. The results show high average values of sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) in soil samples (16.21) compared with that in water samples (0.161) which were found to be lower than the accepted guideline values (3-10). Water samples showed relatively high average concentrations for calcium (43.82ppm), magnesium (11.61ppm), potassium (3.80ppm) and silicon (21.89) but very low average concentrations of sodium (0.87ppm). All the micro minerals showed low average concentrations in water samples except iron (Fe) which showed relatively high concentration (59.2ppm) in sample (No1). All the toxic minerals concentrations were found to be very low in water samples. Soil samples showed high average concentrations for calcium (15999.9ppm), magnesium(6552.8ppm), potassium(2183.74ppm), sodium(1781.32ppm) VI iron(29168.6ppm), manganese(510.22ppm), nickel (65.51ppm), titanium (4817.9ppm) and Zink (43.24ppm. The average concentrations of toxic minerals aluminum, barium, strontium and vanadium were high in soil samples, but the average concentrations of arsenic, lead and cadmium were found to be of very low in all soil samples. UV-VIS Spectrophotometric results showed low average concentrations of anions chloride, nitrate and sulfate in water and soil samples, chloride and Nitrate concentrations were almost similar, but sulfate ions concentrations were relatively high.