Investigating Environmental Implications of Reclaimed Water Use for Turfgrass Areas (2022-23, $19,780)


Growing populations and declining water resources have forced many communities to critically evaluate how water is being used in the urban sector, particularly because a large portion (~ ≥50 percent) is used for landscape irrigation, which is considered nonessential. Reclamation of municipal wastewater shows promise as a means to meet the continued demand and growing pressure on irrigation water resources. Unlike potable water reserves, quantities of reclaimed wastewater continue to increase due to population growth and provide a readily available source of irrigation. Consequently, irrigation of landscape with treated effluent water (also called reclaimed, reused, recycled, or wastewater) has become a common practice in response to the increasing awareness of potable water shortages.


Because raw effluent typically contains significant quantities of many essential plant nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, its use to irrigate landscapes could reduce the need and reliance on commercial fertilizers. Tus, irrigating with effluent may provide plants with similar quantities of essential plant nutrients to those delivered via fertigation with a dilute concentration of fertilizer. Conversely, the additive effect of effluent water and fertilizer application may result in enhanced nutrient leaching.


Changing the water source will not only affect the grass itself but might also have an impact on plant-associated microbial communities. Te microbiome of plants, which is pivotal to both key components of the fitness of plants, growth, and survival, is mostly shaped by nutrient availability and drastic changes in nutrient content in the water will most likely alter their structure and function. Te importance of healthy microbiomes for turfgrass is starting to be recognized in the industry, although neither solid data on community structure nor metabolic functions of turf microbiomes have been well described in the scientific literature. Detailed molecular analyzes will compare and contrast microbial communities before and after treatments.


Te field study site was established using fresh water. Six irrigation zones of 20 ft. by 20 ft. (6.096 m.) were constructed on native soil in January 2021. ‘CitraBlue’ St. Augustinegrass was sodded on February 8, 2021. Within the irrigation plots, subplots consist of two N fertilization plots. Suction lysimeters were installed in December 2021, and half the area was switched to reclaimed irrigation in the Spring of 2022. Plots are mowed three times per week at 3 inch (7.62 cm.) and watered daily based on previous week evapotranspiration (ET). Nitrogen rates include low and high rates for St. Augustinegrass fertilization.


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Plot preparation—system lay out


Plot Preparation—Trenching for installation—View one


a continuous segmented flow analyzer (SEAL Analytical, Mequon, WI) at the University of Florida FLREC chemistry laboratory. Tissue samples will be collected monthly to determine growth rate and N content.


Plots will be evaluated every two weeks for visual turf quality (1-9 scale), volumetric soil water content (VWC) using time domain reflectometry (TDR), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and percentage green coverage and dark green color index using digital image analysis. Leachate samples will be collected biweekly by removing all leachate by vacuum extraction for volume determination, and a 20-mL subsample will be analyzed for nitrate (NO3 and ammonium (NH4-N) and ortho P concentrations using


-N)


TPI Turf News September/October 2022


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