Abstract
A good assessment of soil water and salt content is required for sustainable irrigation with brackish/saline water. The use of the Internet of Things (IoT) has been initiated for the tomato crop (Savera variety) as part of the PRIMA MEDITOMATO project. An experiment was carried out between February and June 2022 at a farmer’s site. For continuous soil water and salt content assessment, TEROS (11/12) probes were implemented at depths of 0, 10, 20, 30, and 60 cm. The data logging process was performed by a ZL6 device and delivered by the ZENTRA Cloud web application (METER GROUPE Company). For the accuracy of the introduced sensors, calibration tests were first processed. Results of the calibration of the probes in the laboratory and in situ showed linear relationships between the humidity values measured by ZL6 (θZL6) and those determined by the gravimetric method, with high correlation coefficients (R2) of 0.86 and 0.96, respectively. There were also strong linear relationships between the ECbulk(ZL6) and the ECe measured on saturated paste extract with high correlation coefficients (R2) of 0.96 and 0.95. Corrected data, according to the determined linear regression equations, present the real-time assessment of soil water and salt content over the entire growth stage of tomatoes. The results of this monitoring showed that soil water content remained close to its status at field capacity (32%) at the beginning of the assessment and increased with the intensification of irrigation, reaching 46 and 54% at 20 and 30 cm, respectively, around mid-April. The salinity level was greater with depth. Indeed, it was low in topsoil with the increase in irrigation frequency and higher at 30 and 60 cm toward the end of the tomato cycle. According to this study, real-time data given by ZENTRA Cloud allows us to adjust irrigation management on time.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Besma Zarai, upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We would really like to thank and express our appreciation to the Research Laboratory “Valorization of the Non- Conventional Waters, VNCW”, in the National Institute of Research in Rural Engineering, Water, and Forests (INRGREF, Tunisia) for facilitating the implementation of the experiments and the analysis.
Funding
The authors acknowledge funding from the European Union PRIMA program MEDITOMATO project, grant agreement no. [1831].
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Besma Zarai and Mohamed Hachicha contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and methodology were performed by Besma Zarai and Mohamed Hachicha. Data collection and analysis were performed by Besma Zarai, Yosra Khammeri, and Mohamed Hachicha. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Besma Zarai. Khawla Khaskhoussy, Marwa Zouari, Dalila Souguir, Yosra Khammeri, Malak Moussa, and Mohamed Hachicha commented on the previous versions of the manuscript. Khawla Khaskhoussy, Marwa Zouari, Dalila Souguir, Yosra Khammeri, and Malak Moussa read and approved the final manuscript.
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Zarai, B., Khaskhoussy, K., Zouari, M. et al. Smart control of soil water and salt content for improving irrigation management of tomato crop field: Kairouan area. Environ Monit Assess 195, 1408 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-12019-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-12019-6