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

• Published in: Environmental monitoring and assessment Vol. 187; no. 8; pp. 520 - 9
• Main Authors: Ferreira, Raimundo Nonato Costa, Weber, Olmar Baller, Crisóstomo, Lindbergue Araujo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-08-2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural ecosystems; Agricultural Irrigation; Agricultural production; Agriculture; Animals; Arthropods; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Beans; Biodiesel fuels; Biodiversity; Biofuels; Brazil; Crops; Crops, Agricultural; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Ecotoxicology; Energy crops; Environment; Environmental Management; Environmental Monitoring; Groundwater; Groundwater irrigation; Helianthus; Irrigation; Irrigation water; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Oil and gas exploration; Oil exploration; Osmosis; Rainy season; Reverse osmosis; Ricinus communis; Seasons; Semiarid lands; Soil - parasitology; Soil fauna; Soil structure; Vegetation; Wastewater; Water; Water scarcity; Water Supply; Water treatment; Community structure; Biofuel crop; Irrigation with produced water; Soil fauna; Environmental management
• ISSN: 0167-6369; 1573-2959
• DOI: 10.1007/s10661-015-4744-7

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.