Which irrigation system is likely to result in less salinization of soil?
Salinization occurs because salt is allowed to accumulate in the soil in the absence of adequate leaching, assuming the soil was not saline before irrigation began and assuming salinization did not occur as a result of a rising water table close to the soil surface. In most circumstances where salinization occurs, the net direction of water flow in the soil is upward, toward the soil surface. Salinization problems might be less with drip versus other irrigation systems because drip systems typically experience lower evaporation losses, which contribute to salt accumulation. When one looks at water loss in a cropped or planted system, the operative term is evapotranspiration, which is a combination of evaporation and transpiration. It is a well-known fact that evaporation constitutes 80-90% of ET shortly after sprinkler or surface irrigation and as the soil dries, the evaporation component rapidly decreases and the transpiration component rapidly increases. Eventually, transpiration acc
