Using ¹³⁷Cs measurements to establish catchment sediment budgets and explore scale effects

Abstract

Abstract:Growing awareness of the wider environmental significance of fine sediment transport by rivers and associated sediment problems linked to sediment-water quality interactions, nutrient and contaminant transfer, and the degradation of aquatic habitats has resulted in the need for an improved understanding of the mobilization and transfer of sediment in catchments to support the development of effective sediment management strategies. The sediment budget provides a key integrating concept for assembling information on the internal functioning of a catchment in terms of its sediment dynamics by providing information on the mobilization, transfer, storage and output of sediment. One key feature of a catchment sediment budget is the relationship between the sediment yield at the catchment outlet and rates of sediment mobilization and transfer within the catchment, which is commonly represented by the sediment delivery ratio. To date, most attempts to derive estimates of this ratio have been based on a comparison of the measured sediment yield from a catchment with an estimate of the erosion occurring within the catchment, derived from an erosion prediction procedure, such as the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) or its revised version, RUSLE. There is a need to obtain more direct and spatially distributed evidence of the erosion rates occurring within a catchment and to characterize the links between sediment mobilization, transfer, storage and output more explicitly. In this context, fallout radionuclides have proved particularly useful as sediment tracers. This paper reports the results of a study aimed at exploring the use of caesium-137 ( 137 Cs) measurements to establish sediment budgets for three catchments of different sizes and contrasting land use located in Calabria, southern Italy. Long-term measurements of sediment output were available for the catchments, and, by using the estimates of gross and net rates of soil loss within the catchments provided by 137 Cs measurements, it was possible to establish the key components of the sediment budget for each catchment. By documenting the sediment budgets of three catchments of different sizes, the study provides a basis for exploring the effects of scale on catchment sediment budgets and, in particular, the increasing importance of catchment storage as the size of the catchment increases. The results of this study demonstrate a reduction in the sediment delivery ratio from 98 to 2% as catchment area increases from 1Ð47 ha to 31Ð2 km 2 .

Using 137Cs technique to quantify soil erosion and deposition rates in an agricultural catchment in the black soil region, Northeast China

“…Topographic factors such as slope gradient and curvature are usually regarded as main factors controlling soil redistribution (e.g., Sadiki et al, 2007;Porto et al, 2011). However, our study, as well as Fulajtar (2003), Bujan et al (2003) and Afshar et al (2010) for Slovakia, Argentina and Iran suggested weak relations of soil redistribution rates with slope gradient and curvature.…”

The sediment budget of a highly dynamic mesoscale catchment: The River Isábena

“…The SDR shows a scale effect, usually with an inverse relation with drainage area, ranging from a delivery ratio of ca. 100% at microscale basins (i.e., b0.1 km 2 ; Porto et al, 2011) to values b 10% typically found in mesoscale basins (i.e., 100-1000 km 2 ; Roehl, 1962;Williams and Berndt, 1972;Porto et al, 2011). The scale effect is often explained by the fact that, during transport through a river basin, progressively more sediment is trapped in footslopes, concavities, alluvial plains, the channel itself and other sinks, while erosion rates do not increase or even decrease due to decreasing hillslope gradients downstream (Walling, 1983;de Vente et al, 2007).…”

Release of nutrients into a forested catchment of southern Italy

“…To date, there are some models, more or less compound, used in the management of water resources, fit to pretend the flow of waters and the loading of some solutes (Stoker and Seager 1974;Mosello et al 1987;Frega and Infusino 1993;Viviani 2006). Some of these models disregard the extent of a bottom pollution owed to site features and, above all, to atmospheric deposition (Porto et al 2011(Porto et al , 2013 affecting the fixation, volatilization, absorption and release of biogenic substances. Really, the atmospheric depositions affect directly biogeochemical loops and, therefore, the quality of water runoff caused by the interactions between soil, water and vegetation (van Dijk et al 1992;Berger and Glatzel 1994).…”