Effect of Mulch Types on Maintaining Soil Moisture in Different Landscape Areas of Tabriz City

Abstract

In this research, the effect of the mulch layer on the soil surface as an anti-evaporation layer was investigated in three soils with a different texture from three points of Tabriz green space including Abbas Mirza in the south, Einali in the north, and Khavaran in eastern Tabriz. The soils were placed in small lysimeters with a diameter and height of 30 cm (25 cm of soil and 3 cm of mulch). This field experiment was a completely randomized blocks design with five treatments included; control (no mulch layer) and four types of mulch cover including fine sand, manure, wood chips, and petrochemical waste, and three replications conducted over 20 days. The analysis of variance in all soil samples showed a significant effect (p<0.01) of the surface mulch layer on the amount of surface evaporation from lysimeters. The results also showed in sandy loam soils of Abbas Mirza and Khavaran regions, sand mulch treatment with 69.2% and 66.9%, respectively, and in clay loam soils of Einali region, wood chips treatment with 70% reduced evaporation. Petrochemical waste treatment showed the least effect in reducing the amount of evaporation in all three types of soil tested.

Keywords

• fine sand
• manure
• petrochemical waste
• surface evaporation
• wood chips