Evaluation of plant health and soil quality following irrigation trial with desalinated polished produced water

The present study used desalinated Permian produced water (PW) and municipal drinking water to irrigate Sorghum-Sudangrass, evaluating the effects of treated PW on crop growth, soil chemistry, and the soil and plant microbiome in a field setting near Orla, Texas. Samples were collected from bulk soil, rhizosphere, and phyllosphere at the end of the growing season to assess how microbial community composition responded to irrigation with treated PW compared to local drinking water. Bacterial and archaeal communities were characterized following the Earth Microbiome Project protocol using the 515F/806R primer set, while fungal communities were assessed using the ITS1f/ITS2 primers.