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Produced water irrigation changes the soil mesofauna community in a semiarid agroecosystem

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Abstract

The scarcity of water in semiarid regions requires alternative sources for irrigation to improve agricultural production. Here, we aimed to evaluate the effects of produced water from oil exploration on the structure of soil mesofauna during the dry and rainy seasons in irrigated sunflower and castor bean fields in a Brazilian semiarid region. Three irrigation treatments were applied on plots cultivated with castor beans and sunflowers: produced water treated by filtration (filtrated) or treated by reverse osmosis (reverse osmosis) and groundwater. The mesofauna under the biofuel crops was collected and identified during the dry and rainy seasons. Although the abundance and richness of the total fauna did not differ between seasons in sunflower plots, the community was altered. In castor beans, the abundance, richness, and community of mesofauna observed in plots irrigated with produced water differed from the groundwater treatment. Irrigation with produced water promotes important changes in soil fauna community that justify their assessment for the maintenance and monitoring of agroecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by PETROBRAS. The authors thank CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) and Embrapa Agroindústria Tropical.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Recursos Naturais, Universidade Federal, do Ceará, Fortaleza, Ceará, 60455-760, Brazil

    Raimundo Nonato Costa Ferreira

  2. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, Fortaleza, Ceará, 600511-110, Brazil

    Olmar Baller Weber & Lindbergue Araujo Crisóstomo

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  1. Raimundo Nonato Costa Ferreira
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  2. Olmar Baller Weber
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  3. Lindbergue Araujo Crisóstomo
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Correspondence to Raimundo Nonato Costa Ferreira.

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Ferreira, R.N.C., Weber, O.B. & Crisóstomo, L.A. Produced water irrigation changes the soil mesofauna community in a semiarid agroecosystem. Environ Monit Assess 187, 520 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-015-4744-7

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