Potential remediation of rangelands after brine water contamination using five different grasses

Recent advances in technology now allow for the use of water from the Santa Rosa formation to be used for fracking in the oil and natural gas industry. Unfortunately, water from this formation varies in salinity from 3,000 to 10,000 ppm, which may inhibit vegetation growth when spills occur. Saltwater spills with higher salinity water (80,000 ppm) cause total vegetation loss. Unfortunately, little is known regarding the impacts of brine water spills from the Santa Rosa formation. For this study, Alkali sacaton (Sporobolus airoides (Torr.) Torr.), WW B-dahl Bluestem (Bothriochloa bladhii Retz.), Sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula Michx, Torr. var. curtipendula), Blue grama (Bouteloua gracillis Kunth), and Wilman lovegrass (Eragostis superba Peyr.) were planted and watered with 0, 3,000, 5,000, or 10,000 ppm saline concentration for 21 days. Wilman lovegrass and Alkali sacaton exhibited the highest germination and establishment rate. Once water exceeded 5,000 ppm, germination and establishment was near zero.