HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Figures Only Full Text Free Full Text (PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Isidoro, D. Articles by Aragüés, R. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Isidoro, D. Articles by Aragüés, R. Agricola Articles by Isidoro, D. Articles by Aragüés, R. Related Collections Field-Scale Studies Soil Salinity Other Oil Crops Crop Models Statistics Irrigation

Soil and Water

Modeling Survival of Young Olive Trees (Olea europaea L. cv. Arbequina) in Saline and Waterlogging Field Conditions

Unidad de suelos y riegos, Centro de investigación y tecnología agroalimentaria (CITA-DGA) and Laboratorio de agronomía y medio ambiente (DGA-CSIC), Apdo. 727, 50080-Zaragoza, Spain

^* Corresponding author (disidoro{at}aragon.es)

Received for publication August 5, 2005. As the pressure to use marginal or low-quality lands for crop production increases, it becomes increasingly necessary to determine the influence of stress factors such as salinity or waterlogging on crop growth and yield. This paper models the survival of olive trees (Olea europaea L. cv. Arbequina) under salinity and waterlogging field conditions. The effects of soil salinity [electrical conductivity of the saturation extract (ECe)] and waterlogging [relative ground elevation (RGE) and water table depth (WTD)] on the survival of 338 young olive trees were analyzed by logistic regression. The logit and probit models based on ECe, RGE, and WTD and their interactions were fitted to the data. Also, a nonlinear regression with 100% probability of olive survival (P) below a first ECe limit, 0% P above a second ECe limit, and a linear decrease in between (threshold-slope regression model) was fitted to the ECe data. The ECe and RGE were the two factors significantly affecting olive survival. The ECe was 7.7 dS m^–1 for P = 50% (estimated median lethal ECe) and 3.7 dS m^–1 for P = 95%. The threshold-slope model ECe estimates were 5.0 dS m^–1 (upper threshold for unrestricted survival or P = 100%) and 10.3 dS m^–1 (lower limit for the nonsurvival or P = 0%). Young olive trees were moderately tolerant to soil salinity, and their P under saline conditions was satisfactorily explained by both the logistic and the threshold-slope regression models.

Abbreviations: ECe, electrical conductivity of the saturation extract • P, probability of survival • RGE, relative ground elevation • WTD, water table depth