Abstract:In order to reveal the effect of the reclaimed water irrigation modes on tidal soil structural properties and water conductivity, an indoor simulated soil column infiltration experiment with four treatments as:fresh water irrigation (CK), reclaimed water irrigation (RW), mixed irrigation of fresh water and reclaimed water (RW-2), and alternative irrigation of fresh water and reclaimed water (ARW) was conducted to assess the effect of irrigation modes on soil bulk density, total porosity, aggregate stability, infiltration rate, and saturated hydraulic conductivity. The results showed that compared with CK, the bulk density of each treatment showed a decreasing trend and the total porosity increased, but the difference was not significant. Reclaimed water irrigation promoted the transformation of >1 mm aggregates to <1 mm aggregates in tidal soil. Compared with CK, the content of <1 mm aggregates in each treatment increased by 11.51%~31.22%, respectively. The water stability of tidal soil aggregates decreased, the content of >0.25 mm aggregates decreased by 2.92%~9.75%, the mean weight diameter decreased by 11.30%~38.38%, and the geometric mean diameter decreased 3.93%~12.78%, among which RW was the most significant. The correlation analysis showed that the higher the percentage of water-stable aggregates particle size bigger than 1 mm, the more stable of the soil structure. The soil water infiltration rate of tidal soil increased by 80.00%~260.00% under three irrigation modes of reclaimed water. The effective water conductivity of ARW increased by 22.68%, while RW and RW-2 reduced by 14.47% and 42.36%, respectively. The best capacity of improving the structural properties of tidal soil was RW-2, while ARW was the most significant treatment for improving hydraulic conductivity of tidal soil.