Fallout beryllium-7 as a tracer in soil erosion investigations.

Recent developments in the use of the environmental radionuclides 137Cs and 210Pb for documenting medium-term soil erosion rates must be seen as an important advance. However, measurements of these radionuclides provide estimates of medium-term (i.e. ca. 45 or 100 years) soil redistribution rates and there is a need to explore the potential for using complementary radionuclides, to estimate erosion rates associated with individual events or short periods. Beryllium-7 (7Be, t0.5 = 53 days) has the potential to fulfil these requirements. This contribution presents some preliminary results from an investigation undertaken in a field near Crediton, UK, which successfully demonstrates the potential for using 7Be as a tracer in soil erosion investigations.

[1]  Timothy A. Quine,et al.  THE RELATIVE CONTRIBUTION OF SOIL TILLAGE AND OVERLAND FLOW EROSION TO SOIL REDISTRIBUTION ON AGRICULTURAL LAND , 1996 .

[2]  D. Walling,et al.  EROSION PROCESSES AND LANDFORM EVOLUTION ON AGRICULTURAL LAND - NEW PERSPECTIVES FROM CAESIUM-137 MEASUREMENTS AND TOPOGRAPHIC-BASED EROSION MODELLING , 1997 .

[3]  A. Murray,et al.  Distribution and Variability of 7Be in Soils Under Different Surface Cover Conditions and its Potential for Describing Soil Redistribution Processes , 1996 .

[4]  P. Wallbrink,et al.  Use of fallout radionuclides as indicators of erosion processes , 1993 .

[5]  R. Loughran.  The measurement of soil erosion , 1989 .

[6]  D. Carey.  Erosion and Sediment Transport Monitoring Programmes in River Basins , 1994 .

[7]  P. Santschi,et al.  Natural (210Pb, 7Be) and fallout (137Cs, 239,240Pu, 90Sr) radionuclides as geochemical tracers of sedimentation in Greifensee, Switzerland , 1987 .

[8]  W. Silker,et al.  Aerosol deposition velocities on the Pacific and Atlantic oceans calculated from7Be measurements , 1980 .

[9]  A. Murray,et al.  Determining Soil Loss Using the Inventory Ratio of Excess Lead-210 to Cesium-137 , 1996 .

[10]  D. Correll,et al.  The Rhode River Watershed: Phosphorus Distribution and Export in Forest and Agricultural Soils , 1992 .

[11]  J. Robbins,et al.  The partitioning of 7beryllium in fresh water , 1986 .

[12]  D. Walling,et al.  The use of caesium-137 measurements in soil erosion surveys , 1992 .

[13]  E. Clark,et al.  The off-site costs of soil erosion , 1985 .

[14]  D. Walling,et al.  Use of radiometric fingerprints to derive information on suspended sediment sources , 1992 .

[15]  Desmond E. Walling,et al.  Improved Models for Estimating Soil Erosion Rates from Cesium‐137 Measurements , 1999 .

[16]  Jerry C. Ritchie,et al.  Application of Radioactive Fallout Cesium-137 for Measuring Soil Erosion and Sediment Accumulation Rates and Patterns: A Review , 1990 .

[17]  D. Walling,et al.  Calibration of caesium-137 measurements to provide quantitative erosion rate data , 1990 .

[18]  A. Murray,et al.  Fallout of 7Be in South Eastern Australia , 1994 .

[19]  J. Olley,et al.  Natural Radionuclide Behaviour in the Fluvial Environment , 1992 .

[20]  W. Casey,et al.  Atmospheric fluxes and marsh‐soil inventories of 7Be and 210Pb , 1985 .

[21]  D. E. Walling,et al.  Use of fallout 137Cs measurements for validating and calibrating soil erosion and sediment delivery models , 1998 .