2025 : 4 : 22

Mohsen Jalali

Academic rank: Professor
ORCID:
Education: PhD.
ScopusId: 14825002200
HIndex:
Faculty: Faculty of Agriculture
Address:
Phone: 081-34425191

Research

Title
An investigation on groundwater geochemistry changes after 17 years: a case study from the west of Iran
Type
JournalPaper
Keywords
Water quality ، Diferent sampling years ، Nitrate pollution ، Arid environment
Year
2020
Journal Environmental Earth Sciences
DOI
Researchers ، Mohsen Jalali

Abstract

The application of chemical and organic fertilizers to agricultural lands increases nutrient pools and afects soil and water quality. Understanding changes in groundwater quality due to the anthropogenic activities over time is important to human and ecosystem health. In 2017, we resampled 58 wells monitored in the year 2000 to evaluate the rate of changes in groundwater quality and water quality indices over time in response to agricultural and industrial activities and climate changes. The groundwater in two sampling years was dominated by Ca–HCO3 water type. The mean groundwater pH, electrical conductivity (EC), calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), and sodium (Na+) concentrations did not signifcantly change over time, while a signifcant buildup in bicarbonate (HCO− 3 ) (189–305 mg l−1), nitrate (NO− 3 ) (41–56 mg l−1), chloride (Cl−) (57–77 mg l−1) and a signifcant decrease in sulfate (SO2− 4 ) (159–91 mg l−1) and potassium (K+) (3–2 mg l−1) was observed. In 2000, 45% of the water samples were classifed as high salinity hazard, and this value increased to 52% by 2017, indicating that salinity of the water samples increased over 17 years. In 2000, only 25% of the total area had a NO− 3 value greater than 50 mg l−1; and this value increased sharply to 62% by 2017, indicating that NO− 3 concentrations signifcantly increased with approximately 2.2% annually in groundwater, over 17 years. Approximately, 55% of the groundwaters with NO− 3 concentration values of less than 40 mg l−1 in 2000 shifts one to four categories upward in 2017. The percentage of water samples which was shifted to the next category with NO− 3 concentration higher than 50 mg l−1 and approaching the limit of the World Health Organization was doubled in 2017 compared with 2000. High application of chemical and manure fertilizers in excess of crop needs should be avoided in the studied area to prevent continued increases in groundwater NO− 3 concentrations.