Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2017ND335B

Effect of Water Level on Soybean Growth with High Salinity Water

Institute: North Dakota
Year Established: 2017 Start Date: 2017-03-01 End Date: 2018-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $3,936 Total Non-Federal Funds: $7,872

Principal Investigators: Halis Simsek

Project Summary: Optimum water level for soybean growth with a moderate saline water supply is crucial. Water table could provide appropriate water for plants, if it stays below the root-zone. However, due to unbalanced precipitation regimes and irrigation applications, high water table becomes destructive. High salts and sodium in raising water table would be adverse effect on the soil health and it limits crop yields. Therefore, a column study in a controlled environment is the best ways to simulate soil conditions. In this study, 12 plot-scale soil columns will be used in greenhouse to investigate soybean yield under moderate saline condition. The main advantage of the controlled environment is to operate experiments properly without worried about ambient climatic conditions. Outcomes will provide us information about soybean tolerance on water levels. In addition, water movement and fate will be modeled using Hydrus-1D computer modeling. Hydrus-1D is a Windows based software modeling for simulating water, heat, and solute movement in variably saturated media.