Reuso de águas na irrigação de mudas florestais de Libidibia ferrea (jucá)

Abstract

Considering the importance of cultivating forest seedlings of native species in the revegetation of degraded areas in the northeastern semiarid region, as well as the relevance of wastewater reuse in the preservation of natural water resources, the present study aimed to analyze the development of forest seedlings of Libidibia ferrea (Jucá), irrigated with four different water sources: domestic sewage from a UASB reactor, domestic wastewater treated by activated sludge, water from an eutrophic water body, and potable water, in equal amounts. The experiment was conducted in the greenhouse of the Department of Agronomy at the Federal University of Ceará (UFC), Pici campus, located in Fortaleza-CE. The irrigation period of the seedlings was from April 9 to June 11, 2025. The analyses were performed on the respective variables: total plant height, base diameter and number of leaves, were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA), and the means obtained for each treatment were compared using Tukey’s test (at 5% probability), with the software IBM SPSS Statistics 22. The analysis indicated that seedlings irrigated with UASB reactor effluent showed higher average values for Total Height (36.92 cm) and Number of Leaves (128.83), differing statistically from the other treatments (p < 0.05), demonstrating that the substitution of raw water with domestic effluent positively influenced the development of Jucá forest seedlings for these variables, since the results were more favorable with the use of UASB reactor effluent when compared to the other water sources used.