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Soil salinity in Aceh after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
M.K. McLeod a,*, P.G. Slavich a, Y. Irhas b, N. Moore a, A. Rachman c, N. Ali b, T. Iskandar b,
C. Hunt a, C. Caniago b
a
Industry & Investment NSW Primary Industries Australia, Tamworth Agricultural Institute, 4 Marsden Park Road, Tamworth, Calala, N.S.W. 2340, Australia
Assessment Institute for Agricultural Technology, Aceh, Indonesia
c
Indonesian Soil Research Institute, Bogor, Indonesia
b
A R T I C L E I N F O
A B S T R A C T
Article history:
Received 1 June 2009
Accepted 27 October 2009
Available online 19 January 2010
The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami inundated about 37,500 ha of coastal farmland in Aceh, and crops
planted after the tsunami were severely affected by soil salinity. This paper describes the changes of soil
salinity over time on tsunami affected farms and the implications for resuming crop production after
natural disasters.
Soil salinity and salt leaching processes were assessed across the tsunami affected region by
measuring soil apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) using an electromagnetic induction soil
conductivity instrument (EM38) combined with limited soil analysis. The ECa was measured 5 times
between August 2005 and December 2007 in both the vertical (EMv) and horizontal (EMh) dipole
orientations at 23 sites across Aceh. The level of salinity and direction of salt movement were assessed by
comparing changes in mean prole ECa and relative changes in EMv and EMh.
Eight months after the tsunami the average soil salinity in the 01.2 m soil depth varied from ECe 22.6
to 1.6 dS m1 across sites in the affected region and three years after the tsunami it varied from 13.0 to
1.4 dS m1. Soil salinity tended to be higher in rice paddy areas that trapped saline tsunami sediments
and held seawater for longer periods. Leaching of salts occurred slowly by both vertical displacement and
horizontal movement in surface waters. Hence, soil salinity persisted at a level which could reduce crop
production for several years after the 2004 tsunami. High soil salinity persisted three years after the
tsunami even though there had been more than 30007000 mm of accumulated rainfall to leach salts.
The slow leaching is likely to have been due to the loss of functional drainage systems and general low
relief of the affected areas.
Monitoring of soil salinity with EM38 assisted local agricultural extension agencies to identify sites
that were too saline for crops and determine when they were suitable for cropping again. The
methodology used in this study could be used after similar disasters where coastal agriculture areas
become inundated by seawater from storm surges or future tsunamis.
Crown Copyright 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
EM38
Seawater inundation
Soil electrical conductivity
Leaching
Electromagnetic induction
1. Introduction
The earthquake measuring more than 9.0 on the Richter scale on
26 December 2004 triggered a violent, 10 m high tsunami, killing
and injuring hundreds and thousands of people and affecting farm
lands in low-lying coastal areas around the Indian Ocean.
The effect of this tsunami on agriculture includes soil
salinisation (Subagyono et al., 2005; Rachman et al., 2005;
Wijewardena and Gunaratne, 2005; Chaudhary et al., 2006;
Rengalakshmi et al., 2007; Chandrasekharan et al., 2008; Raja
et al., 2009), soil sodicity (Rachman et al., 2005), increased soil
organic matter content (Rengalakshmi et al., 2007; Agus et al.,
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 6763 1457; fax: +61 2 6763 1222.
E-mail address: malem.mcleod@industry.nsw.gov.au (M.K. McLeod).
0378-3774/$ see front matter . Crown Copyright 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2009.10.014
606
The sensitivity of the EM38 response to soil ECa varies with soil
depth. Measurements in the horizontal mode (EMh) have greatest
sensitivity to soil ECa at the soil surface and declining sensitivity to
a depth of 0.35 m; while measurements in the vertical mode (EMv)
are more sensitive to soil ECa at 0.35 m depth and declining in
sensitivity to a depth of 1.5 m (Slavich and Petterson, 1990). The
relative value between EMh and EMv can be used to estimate the
distribution of soil salinity in the soil prole. If the value of EMh is
greater than EMv, salt levels are likely to be greatest in the top 0
0.35 m of the soil prole. When EMv is higher than EMh then salt
levels are likely to be greatest below the 0.35 m depth. This
difference in sensitivity can be used to assess salt leaching
processes.
In this study soil salinity changes over time in the tsunami
affected areas across the Aceh province, were monitored to guide
farmers as to when land was suitable for resuming crop
production. The different sensitivities of horizontal and vertical
dipole readings from the EM38 were utilised to provide an
indication of salt leaching processes.
2. Methods
2.1. Site and soil descriptions
Twenty-three monitoring sites within 5 km of the east coast of
Aceh Province were selected across Aceh Besar, Banda Aceh, Pidie,
and Bireuen districts (Table 1; Fig. 1), depending on the availability
of replanted crops in the tsunami affected elds, road access, and
the security of personnel. The study was commenced before the
Aceh peace agreement was signed and only secure areas with
established local agricultural extension networks were selected.
Most of the assessment sites were bunded lowland irrigated and
rainfed rice elds (sawah), and some were more elevated and used
to grow vegetables or palawija crops.
In each site, 13 xed transects of up to 100 m each were
selected based on visual assessment of crop performance (poor,
medium, and good) during the initial survey in August 2005. There
were a total of 38 transects across the 23 sites. The number of sites
was reduced to 22 in January 2007 because site 4 was converted
into housing. In December 2007, only 10 sites where high salinity
levels remained were measured.
In August 2005, soils from sites 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 16 and 22 (covering a
range of ECa values) were sampled at increments of 0.1 and 0.2 m,
down to 1.2 m for chemical analyses.
Rainfall distribution in the study area is bi-modal (Fig. 2). The
wet season is from September to January and the dry season is from
February to August. The long term average of annual rainfall for
Aceh Besar, Pidie, and Bireuen districts is 1668, 1889 and
1613 mm, respectively. The cumulative rainfall from 2005 to
2007 for these districts is 5205, 7779 and 7214 mm, respectively.
Entisol is the dominant soil type in the coastal oodplain of
Aceh (Rachman et al., 2005). All the assessment sites contained
alluvial oodplain soils with silty loam to silty clay at 00.2 m
depth (Table 1). The puddling practices in lowland rice elds in
Aceh create a medium to heavy clay pan layer at about 0.2 m to
hold water during the rice growing season. Below the clay pan
layer soil texture ranges from loamy sand to clay.
2.2. Assessment tools and procedures
Agricultural research and extension staff in Aceh were trained
in salinity assessment using soil sampling and the EM38
instrument. The soil ECa was measured in both the horizontal
(EMh) and the vertical (EMv) dipole orientations, at about 5 m
intervals along each transect. The instrument was placed on the
ground if the soil was dry and 3 cm above the ground if the soil was
607
Table 1
Location and description of assessment sites.
Site ID
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
a
b
c
Latitudec N
0
05821.506
05821.5220
05820.1690
05815.4450
05815.0990
05815.2210
05815.4190
05815.7890
05812.7450
05813.1800
05813.5180
05814.2940
05815.2170
05811.1530
05811.9780
05829.4950
05835.3600
05834.9160
05835.2020
05835.5010
05833.6340
05833.6730
05833.6730
Longitudec E
0
095858.498
095858.4880
096800.4020
096811.0470
096812.9700
096814.9910
096814.7620
09680 09.8010
096839.7450
096840.2520
096840.0 701
096854.0600
096847.4070
096830.4330
096822.4670
095816.1010
095823.7860
095823.1400
095822.5330
095823.2840
095820.6910
095820.7300
095820.7300
Landuse system
Crop-Aug 05
Palawija-rainfed
Palawija-rainfed
Palawija-rainfed
Palawija-rainfed
Sawah-rainfed
Sawah-rainfed
Sawah-rainfed
Palawija-rainfed
Sawah-irrigated
Sawah-irrigated
Sawah-irrigated
Sawah-rainfed
Sawah-irrigated
Sawah-irrigatedb
Sawah-irrigated
Palawija-rainfed
Sawah-rainfed
Sawah-rainfed
Sawah-rainfed
Sawah-rainfed
Palawija-rainfed
Palawija-rainfed
Palawija-rainfed
Silty clay
Silty clay
Silty clay
Clay loam
Clay loam
Clay loam
Silty clay loam
clay loam
Silty clay loam
Silty clay loam
Silty clay loam
Silty clay
Silty clay
Clay loam
Silty loam
Silty loam
Clay loam
Loam
Silty clay
Loamy sand
Silty clay loam
Silty clay loam
Silty clay loam
Tomato
Cauliower
Onion
Peanut
Rice-all dead
Rice
Rice
Bare
Rice
Rice
Rice
Fallow
Rice
Rice
Rice
Water melon
Rice
Rice
Rice
Rice
Egg plant
Onion
Bare
linear regression was tted between the average prole ECe and
ECa.
The salinity level in each assessment site was classed into low to
medium (ECe < 4 dS m1), high (ECe = 48 dS m1), and very high
(ECe > 8 dS m1), after converting ECa to ECe.
It was assumed that shortly after the tsunami event, the soil
salinity of the affected areas would have been highest near the
surface soil. This assumption was based on three factors. First, the
tsunami came after the wet season had started and the soils were
likely to have been close to saturation. Second, most soils in the area
had been used for paddy rice production and commonly contain a
dense hard pan as a result of annual puddling. Both these factors are
likely to have limited the intake of salt water into the lower part of
the soil prole after the tsunami. Third, salt would have been present
in the deposited sediment that remained on the soil surface.
Soluble salts can move from surface soil via either horizontal or
vertical leaching processes. Horizontal leaching refers to salt
movement into surface water owing across the soil. This water
carries salt laterally to lower areas where it may accumulate or be
removed in a drainage system. Lateral movement is likely to occur
during lling of rice paddies and in oods, both of which occurred
in Aceh after the tsunami. Vertical leaching refers to displacement
of salt by water draining vertically through the root zone to subsoil
layers. Changes in EMh and EMv values of transects over time were
used to infer at which sites leaching of surface salts had occurred
and in which direction.
The vertical leaching of salt would be expected to lead to a
decrease in surface soil salinity (decrease in EMh values) and a
corresponding increase in subsoil salinity (increase in EMv values),
and lower average prole ECa. Hence EM38 data may be able to
identify the 3 stages of vertical leaching illustrated in Fig. 3. This
assumes that there is potential for vertical drainage and that no
further salinisation occurs at the soil surface.
During lateral movement of salts from the surface soil by
oodwaters, subsoil salinity would be expected to change very
608
Fig. 1. Location of the assessment sites within the Aceh Besar district (top), Bireuen district (middle), and Pidie district (bottom).
609
Cl 1475EC1:5 166
Na 3:43EC1:5 0:29
Saltssoluble 509EC1:5
Fig. 2. Average monthly rainfall distribution for Aceh Besar, Pidie, and Bireuen
districts for 20012005 periods.
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
The slope and the intercept from this regression line are
comparable to those of Slavich (2002) for similar soil textural
groups.
3.2. Assessment of repeatability of the transect methodology for the
EM38 instrument
The ECa values obtained with the EM38 instrument were highly
consistent on dry or wet soils and in both vertical and horizontal
dipole orientations. The respective measurement errors for EMv
and EMh on the wet soil were 0.6 and 1.5%, respectively, while for
dry soils these errors were 1.1 and 1.0%. This provided condence
that the transect methodology errors were small compared to the
temporal changes in mean transect EM38 readings.
3.3. Average salinity of monitoring sites and site factors
Fig. 3. The conceptual model of soil prole salinity distribution and leaching after
seawater inundation. Stage 1 shortly after seawater inundation (EMh > EMv); stage
2 after some leaching (EMh = EMv), and stage 3 after advanced leaching
(EMh < EMv).
Fig. 4. Average prole salinity across assessment sites over time on selected survey sequences. The dotted line indicates soil salinity levels based on equivalent ECe values
following Slavich (2002).
610
Fig. 5. Salinity levels increased with a longer period of seawater inundation after the
tsunami in a rice bay in Keuneue village, near site 15, Lho Nga, Aceh Besar.
weeks. This excludes areas that were totally lost to the sea.
However, the association between the period of inundation and the
salinity level between sites was surprisingly weak (Fig. 6) because
by August 2005 some farmers had already removed the tsunami
sediment out of their elds whereas others incorporated it into the
soil during the cultivation. In addition, some sediment and salts
would have been distributed during the rainy period as was found
in Thailand (Szczucinski et al., 2007).
The length of inundation tended to affect the depth of sediment
deposit in paddy elds, but not in palawija elds (Fig. 6), probably
because of the fact that the bunded paddy eld could trap water
longer, allowing more time for deposition of suspended sediment.
Soil salinity was affected by irrigation water management after
the tsunami, as illustrated in Fig. 7. Sites 5 and 6 are two adjacent
rice elds with no drainage infrastructure (closed eld). In site 6
the tsunami water was pumped out of the eld after the tsunami,
while in site 5 it remained in the eld. A signicant difference in
salinity levels was measured in October 2005 (Fig. 7). Rice crops in
site 5 with extreme salinity level all died, while in site 6 the
vegetative growth of the rice crop was good. This highlighted the
Fig. 7. Comparison of salinity levels between two adjacent rice eld bays with
different water management in October 2005.
Fig. 6. The relationship between the: (a) period of inundation and depth of sediment, (b) period of inundation and the EMh, and (c) depth of sediment and EMh.
611
Fig. 8. Salinity status (a), leaching stages (b) and sites with uctuating salinity (c) from August 2005 to December 2007.
low to medium, 11 as high, and 6 as very high salinity (Fig. 8a). The
number of sites with high level salinity had reduced to 6 by January
2007 and 4 by December 2007, while the number of sites with low
to medium level salinity increased to 9 by January 2007 and 12 by
December 2007.
The conceptual leaching model based on the relative changes in
EMh and EMv values suggested that there was relatively little
change in the leaching status of sites between August 2005 and
May 2006 and larger changes were more evident after January
2007 (Fig. 8b). In August 2005, 15 of the 23 sites had EMv > EMh
and were classed as having been subject to some degree of leaching
(Fig. 8b). This increased to 17 sites only by January 2007 and 21
sites by December 2007.
Of the 8 sites that were at stage 1 leaching in August 2005
(Fig. 8b), 4 sites still had high surface salinity in January 2006.
However, by December 2007, surface salts had been leached from
all of these sites. There were also 5 sites (including 3 sites in the
Pidie district) that were already leached in August 2005 but the
surface salinity increased in January 2006 before progressively
being leached again (Fig. 8c). There was 600 mm of rainfall
between September and December 2005 in the Bireuen district,
and 1565 mm in the Pidie district, causing severe ooding in
December 2005. It is possible that these rains and ood waters
redistributed salts to the lower part of the landscape, so that the
salinity of some sites increased, while some decreased. By the end
of 2007 most of these sites were leached, except site 19 that was
surrounded by a housing development blocking the drainage
outlet.
Total rainfall in Aceh Besar, Pidie and Bireuen in 2006 was 1557,
2354, and 4095 mm respectively. The totals for 2007 were 2172,
2633, and 1976 mm respectively. Although the soil salinity at most
sites was less by January 2007, 13 of the sites still had a high to very
high soil salinity level (Fig. 8a) despite the high rainfall. By
December 2007, the number of sites with high level salinity
reduced while sites with low-medium level salinity increased. The
number of sites with very high level salinity remained almost
unchanged from August 2005 to December 2007. These are sites
without irrigation and drainage infrastructure (the rainfed sawah
at sites 5, 6, 7, 12, 19 or sites surrounded by housing development
such as site 23). These sites share the common problem of
inadequate drainage infrastructure.
The relative changes in EMv and EMh (Fig. 9) suggest that salt
appears to have moved in both horizontal and vertical directions.
In the rainfed palawija site 21 in Aceh Besar (Fig. 9a) the EMh was
slightly greater than EMv in August 2005. However, by January
2006, EMh had decreased and EMv had increased, which suggests
that there was vertical leaching of salts from the surface soil to an
intermediate depth in the prole (stage 2 leaching, Fig. 3b). In the
rainfed sawah site 7 (Fig. 9b), there was a large increase in EMh
associated with a much smaller increase in EMv in May 2006. This
Fig. 9. Changes in EMh and EMv over time in sites with different land use systems.
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