Spatio-temporal mapping and analysis of soil salinity: an integrated approach through electromagnetic induction (EMI), multivariate and geostatistical techniques

Abstract

The information on salt load in soil is needed to enable suitable soil, crop and water management practices for crop production in salt affected land. An investigation was conducted to test the hypothesis that an integrated approach of electromagnetic induction (EMI), multivariate and geostatistical techniques can provide rapid and reliable information on soil salinity (EC_e) at spatio-temporal scale. EMI survey and the analyzed data indicated that EC_e better correlates with horizontal mode (EM_H) of apparent soil electrical conductivity (R²=0.83) than the vertical (EM_V). Principal component (PCA) and Pearson correlation analysis revealed that Na⁺¹, Ca²⁺+Mg²⁺ and Cl⁻¹ are the major soil chemical properties affecting apparent soil electrical conductivity. The spatial map of soil salinity based on EM_H showed close proximity with the area represented by EC_e observations. Study indicated that EMI methodology can be effectively used to predict, map and identify salinity zones for devising strategies for reclamation of saline soils.

Keywords:

• Soil salinity
• EMI
• PCA

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Director, ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, India (Research article/16/2021) for providing financial assistance and logistics support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.