Tracer techniques in aeolian research: Approaches, applications, and challenges

Wang, Guan; Li, Junran; Ravi, Sujith; Pelt, R. Scott Van; Costa, Pedro; Dukes, David

doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.05.001

Cited by 32 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 131 publications

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“…These studies showed that soil redistribution patterns, erosion and aggregation, can be tracked with REE tracers (Zhang et al, 2001). Wang et al (2017) provide a comprehensive review on current tracer techniques for aeolian research; however, studies specific to quantifying aeolian transport using REE traces are limited or still in development (e.g., Van Pelt et al, 2012.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying Postfire Aeolian Sediment Transport Using Rare Earth Element Tracers

et al. 2018

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Grasslands, which provide fundamental ecosystem services in many arid and semiarid regions of the world, are undergoing rapid increases in fire activity and are highly susceptible to postfire‐accelerated soil erosion by wind. A quantitative assessment of physical processes that integrates fire‐wind erosion feedbacks is therefore needed relative to vegetation change, soil biogeochemical cycling, air quality, and landscape evolution. We investigated the applicability of a novel tracer technique—the use of multiple rare earth elements (REE)—to quantify soil transport by wind and to identify sources and sinks of wind‐blown sediments in both burned and unburned shrub‐grass transition zone in the Chihuahuan Desert, NM, USA. Results indicate that the horizontal mass flux of wind‐borne sediment increased approximately threefold following the fire. The REE tracer analysis of wind‐borne sediments shows that the source of the horizontal mass flux in the unburned site was derived from bare microsites (88.5%), while in the burned site it was primarily sourced from shrub (42.3%) and bare (39.1%) microsites. Vegetated microsites which were predominantly sinks of aeolian sediments in the unburned areas became sediment sources following the fire. The burned areas showed a spatial homogenization of sediment tracers, highlighting a potential negative feedback on landscape heterogeneity induced by shrub encroachment into grasslands. Though fires are known to increase aeolian sediment transport, accompanying changes in the sources and sinks of wind‐borne sediments may influence biogeochemical cycling and land degradation dynamics. Furthermore, our experiment demonstrated that REEs can be used as reliable tracers for field‐scale aeolian studies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying Postfire Aeolian Sediment Transport Using Rare Earth Element Tracers

et al. 2018

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“…To date, the approach has been most widely used to identify fluvial sediment sources in river catchments in different hydro-climatic settings (Collins et al 1997(Collins et al , 2012Walling et al 1999;Russell et al 2001;Mukundan et al 2012;Haddadchi et al 2013;Franz et al 2014;Pulley and Collins 2018;Le Gall et al 2016;Tiecher et al 2018;Koiter et al 2013;Zhang et al 2017). Its application in aeolian geomorphology has emerged much more recently (Liu et al 2016a;Gholami et al 2017aGholami et al , 2017bWang et al 2017;Dahmardeh Behrooz et al 2019), but there remains scope to continue testing the applicability of different tracers for discriminating and apportioning the contributions of critical sources to those coastal sediment deposits, within an uncertainty framework. In brief, sediment fingerprinting involves collecting target sediment samples and comparing their measured tracer properties with those of potential sediment sources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monte Carlo fingerprinting of the terrestrial sources of different particle size fractions of coastal sediment deposits using geochemical tracers: some lessons for the user community

Gholami

TakhtiNajad

Collins

et al. 2019

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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“…Wang et al . () described them as ideal tracers of origin in aeolian research. Consequently, the geochemical interest in the lanthanides is because of their close relation with the source area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lanthanides in granulometric fractions of Mediterranean soils. Can they be used as fingerprints of provenance?

Martín‐García

Molinero‐García

Calero

et al. 2018

European J Soil Science

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There is geochemical interest in the lanthanides because they behave like a group that is closely related to the parent materials during surface processes, although they also undergo fractionation as a result of supergene dynamics. We analysed lanthanide concentrations (ICPms) in the granulometric fractions fine sand, clay and free forms of clay (FFclay‐CDB and FFclay‐Ox: extracted with citrate‐dithionite‐sodium bicarbonate and with ammonium oxalate, respectively) from a soil chronosequence of Mediterranean soils. There was a relative enrichment of heavy rare earth elements (HREE) in the clay fraction and its free forms with respect to fine sand. The clay free forms behaved as scavengers of lanthanides, and oxidative scavenging of cerium (Ce) in FFclay‐CDB was also detected. Lanthanide concentrations (lanthanum to gadolinium in fine sand; terbium to lutetium in clay) varied with soil age, and chronofunctions were established. There was a strong positive collinearity between most of the lanthanide concentrations. Furthermore, the value of the correlation index (Pearson's r) of the concentrations between couples of lanthanides (rCLC) decreased significantly with increasing separation between the elements in the periodic table; this has never been described in soils. Several geochemical properties and indices in the fine sand and clay soil fractions and in the geological materials of the Guadalquivir catchment showed, on the one hand, a genetic relation between them all, enabling the lanthanides to be used as fingerprints of provenance; on the other hand, fractionation between fine sand and clay showed these are actively involved in soil lanthanide dynamics. Highlights Are lanthanides from fine sand and clay genetically related to the geological materials? Lanthanide concentrations of fine sand and clay fit chronofunctions Pearson's r of lanthanide couples decreases when separation increases in the periodic table Free forms of clay are scavengers of lanthanides and concentrate HREE and cerium

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Tracer techniques in aeolian research: Approaches, applications, and challenges

Cited by 32 publications

References 131 publications

Quantifying Postfire Aeolian Sediment Transport Using Rare Earth Element Tracers

Quantifying Postfire Aeolian Sediment Transport Using Rare Earth Element Tracers

Monte Carlo fingerprinting of the terrestrial sources of different particle size fractions of coastal sediment deposits using geochemical tracers: some lessons for the user community

Lanthanides in granulometric fractions of Mediterranean soils. Can they be used as fingerprints of provenance?

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