Monitoring long-term soil condition in the Murray irrigation districts

Abstract

Key findings •• Sites in one of the Murray Irrigation Districts where CSIRO sampled soil in the 1940s have been found and geolocated. If this can be done for all districts, then it will be possible to establish a baseline condition for agricultural soils in the central Murray Valley at a time that pre-dates the advent of modern, intensive agriculture. •• This has the potential to provide valuable information on long-term changes in soil salinity, acidity and soil carbon. For instance, resampling at 12 sites in the Deniboota Irrigation District in 2017 showed that salts present in all profiles in the 1940s have been leached from both dryland and irrigated sites over the past 70 years.