Soil & Water Res., 2017, 12(3):177-186 | DOI: 10.17221/124/2016-SWR

Comparing measurements, ⁷Be radiotracer technique and process-based erosion model for estimating short-term soil loss from cultivated land in Northern GermanyOriginal Paper

Detlef DEUMLICH^1*, Abhinand JHA², Gerald KIRCHNER³

¹ Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF), Müncheberg, Germany

² Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz, Salzgitter, Germany

³ University of Hamburg/ZNF, Hamburg, Germany

Due to changing climate and irregular weather patterns, event-based soil loss and sediment yield have become important issues in the agricultural areas. Several mathematical models and prediction methodologies have been used to estimate event-based soil loss and soil redistribution based on soil types, land management, hydrology and local topography. The use of short-lived beryllium-7 as a means of estimating event-based soil erosion/deposition rates has become an alternative to the traditional soil loss measurement methods. A new erosion model taking into account the movement of ⁷Be in soils has been presented recently. In order to direct the attention to the potential offered by this technique (measurements and mathematical model), a two-year study was performed at the erosion plots in Müncheberg, Germany, and twelve individual erosion rates were estimated. This paper presents a systematic comparison of the non-steady state ⁷Be model with the process-based erosion model EROSION-3D and measured data. The results demonstrate a close consistency between the erosion rates estimated by erosion models and the estimates provided by the ⁷Be model and can therefore be seen as a promising contribution to validating the use of this radionuclide to document short-term soil redistribution within the plot and deposited sediment at the bottom of the plot.

Keywords: beryllium-7; EROSION-3D; fallout radionuclides; sediment; water erosion

Published: September 30, 2017  Show citation