title: Produced water irrigation changes the soil mesofauna community in a semiarid agroecosystem.
abstract: The scarcity of water in semiarid regions requires alternative sources for irrigation to improve agricultural production. Here, we aimed to evaluate the effects of produced water from oil exploration on the structure of soil mesofauna during the dry and rainy seasons in irrigated sunflower and castor bean fields in a Brazilian semiarid region. Three irrigation treatments were applied on plots cultivated with castor beans and sunflowers: produced water treated by filtration (filtrated) or treated by reverse osmosis (reverse osmosis) and groundwater. The mesofauna under the biofuel crops was collected and identified during the dry and rainy seasons. Although the abundance and richness of the total fauna did not differ between seasons in sunflower plots, the community was altered. In castor beans, the abundance, richness, and community of mesofauna observed in plots irrigated with produced water differed from the groundwater treatment. Irrigation with produced water promotes important changes in soil fauna community that justify their assessment for the maintenance and monitoring of agroecosystems.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Recursos Naturais, Universidade Federal, do Ceará, Fortaleza, Ceará, 60455-760, Brazil, nonatocferreira@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Raimundo Nonato Costa
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Olmar Baller
authors.initials: OB
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Lindbergue Araujo
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Crisóstomo
mesh_terms: D057914:Agricultural Irrigation; D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D001181:Arthropods; D044822:Biodiversity; D001938:Brazil; D002367:Ricinus communis; D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D060587:Groundwater; D006368:Helianthus; D012621:Seasons; D012987:Soil / Q000469:parasitology*; D062065:Wastewater; D014867:Water; D014881:Water Supply
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D062065:Wastewater; D014867:Water