More effects of wheat farming on water quality in a salty landscape: the Berg River basin in South Africa M V Fey

and W P de Clercq
Department of Soil Science, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

This study assessed dry land agricultural impacts on river salinity similar to those being researched intensively in Australia. The Berg River basin is of strategic importance to rural and industrial development in the Western Cape Province. Increasing salinity in the river system has been recognised as a serious problem since the 1970s but has hitherto largely been ascribed to irrigation return flow. The region has a semi-arid, Mediterranean climate and is similar to parts of California and Western Australia. The objectives were to estimate the quantity of salts stored in the regolith and to calculate both the potential for decantation of these salts into the river and the rate of change of salt discharge in response to changes in land use practices. Key areas in the basin were sampled intensively and soils were analysed for salinity and related properties. An EM 38 salinity sensor was calibrated against soil analyses as a means of obtaining a rapid field index of soil salinity and its spatial variability. Geostatistical analysis was performed to assess the possibilities of extrapolation based on topography and land use features gleaned from remote imagery. Bare patches, identified in wheat fields by aerial photography and by spectral analysis of colour air photos, were ground-truthed by soil sampling and analysis. Geological, groundwater, surface water and climatic data were correlated to establish origins of salts within the catchment. The influence of land use changes, in particular the replacement of natural renosterveld scrub by winter wheat, on water and salt balance at selected sites in the catchment, was simulated using the ACRU model. Dry land salinity is extensive in the basin and is likely to have a significant impact on water quality in the river. There is widespread patchiness in wheat fields. Bare patches were consistently associated with high levels of soil salinity. Spectral manipulation of colour photos showed that the bare patches can readily be demarcated. A field salinity sensor (EM 38) proved to be a successful proxy for detailed soil sampling. Long-term salinity records of selected tributaries of the Berg River indicated that trends are discernible and appeared to confirm the importance of climatic (as opposed to paleogeologic) factors in determining dry land salinity. Earlier hydrological investigation of salinity in a representative sub-catchment, in 1986, indicated an annual atmospheric input of about 10-15 kg salt/ha and a discharge of about 50 kg/ha in runoff totalling only 3.5 % of annual rainfall of 345 mm. Current simulations using the ACRU model suggest that land use changes have a potentially major impact on salt release from the regolith into surface waters. This supports the hypothesis that a switch from perennial, deep-rooted, renosterveld scrub to annual, shallow-rooted, winter wheat would result in less water use and therefore enhanced discharge of salts into the river system, as has been found to occur in parts of Australia where wheat cultivation has progressively replaced Eucalyptus scrub over the last century. The ACRU model was found to be valuable in simulating not only land use effects on salt discharge but also the long-term natural accumulation of atmospheric salts of marine origin in the regolith, thus clarifying our understanding of the genesis of some saline soils. Salt discharge into surface waters should be viewed increasingly as an environmental risk of rain-fed farming in marginal climates.