Ascribing soil erosion types for sediment yield using composite fingerprinting technique

Abstract

Soil erosion and eroded sediment are serious threats to sound land management. However, less attention has been given to quantifying the importance of different soil erosion features based on appropriate control measures that could be designated. Accordingly, this research was planned to quantify the contribution of potential sediment sources, i.e. sheet, rill and gully erosion, in Idelo watershed in Zanjan Province, Iran, using composite fingerprinting. Toward this aim, 16 geochemical and organic tracers were detected in sediment sources and sediment deposited at the outlet. The results of applying the composite fingerprinting technique, with a relative error of 16%, showed that sheet, rill and gully sources contributed 56%, 44% and 0%, respectively, to sediment yield. It was also apparent from the results that the composite fingerprinting approach could be successfully utilized to assess the provenance of sediment deposited at the main outlet of the study watershed by soil erosion type.Key words composite fingerprinting; geochemical properties; sediment source discrimination; sediment yield; Idelo watershed, Iran Attribution de types d'érosion des sols pour la production de sédiments en utilisant la technique des empreintes composites Résumé L'érosion des sols et les sédiments érodés représentent de sérieuses menaces pour la bonne gestion des terres. Cependant, la quantification de l'importance des différentes caractéristiques de l'érosion des sols sur la base de mesures de contrôle appropriées qui pourraient être identifiées, a reçu une attention limitée. En conséquence, la présente recherche a eu pour objectif de quantifier la contribution des sources potentielles de sédiments, c'est-à-dire l'érosion en nappe, rigoles et ravines, dans le bassin versant de l'Idelo dans la province de Zanjan (Iran), à l'aide d'empreintes composites. A cette fin, 16 traceurs géochimiques et biologiques ont été détectés dans les sources de sédiments et les sédiments déposés à l'exutoire. Les résultats de l'application de la technique des empreintes composites, avec une erreur relative de 16%, ont montré que les sources de nappes, rigoles et ravines ont contribué respectivement à hauteur de 56%, 44% et 0%, au rendement sédimentaire. Les résultats ont également permis de comprendre que l'approche par empreintes composites pourrait être utilisée avec succès pour évaluer la provenance par type d'érosion des sols des sédiments déposés à l'exutoire principal du bassin versant d'étude.

Effectiveness of native wood strand mulches for land rehabilitation in Iran under experimental conditions

“…Total sediment in each sample was determined by oven drying at 105 C (Mohamadi & Kavian, 2015). Given that the sample number was low (n = 3 for all combinations), we examined the median ± median absolute deviations (MADs) (Rousseeuw & Croux, 1993;Sadeghi, Najafi, Bakhtiari, & Abdi, 2014) and performed statistical tests on various combinations with the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test (KW) (Kruskal & Wallis, 1952;Sadeghi, Raeisi, & Hazbavi, 2018;Singh Sidhu, 2015). To test the significance in the differences between the two wood strand types (A. glutinosa and F. orientalis), two application rates (or ground cover of 30 and 70%) and two strand sizes (4 and 16 cm) as compared to bare soil, we used the nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test (Mann & Whitney, 1947;Singh Sidhu, 2015).…”

Analysis of sediment accessibility and availability concepts based on sediment connectivity throughout a watershed

“…This means that the existence of one of the sediment connectivities does not guarantee the operation of active sediment connectivity. Sediment connectivity techniques like sediment fingerprinting thus may not directly reflect and explain the volume of sediments delivered at the outlet, and a watershed component with the highest structural connectivity is not necessarily the component that contributes the most to the sediment delivery at the outlet and vice versa (Cossart et al, 2018; Sadeghi et al, 2014; Sadeghi, Najafi, & Bakhtiari, 2017).…”

“…The identification of type, extent, and location of sediment sources in a watershed and the analysis of the degree of linkage between those sources and the channel network are considered as key steps for assessing sediment delivery. On‐the‐other‐hand, sediment control mitigation strategies would lead to desired results if they are applied to erosion and sediment hotspots to prevent releasing of sediment from their sources or paths (Walling et al, 2008; Sadeghi, Najafi, Bakhtiari, & Abdi, 2014; Di Stefano & Ferro, 2018).…”

Influence of Composite Sediment fingerprinting in identifying the sources of suspended sediments of a semiarid reservoir

“…Based on the time and experimental resources that were available, ngerprint properties were chosen (Sadeghi et al, 2014). The number of sources determines how many properties are required to apportion the sediment (Liu et al, 2017).…”