Abstract
The beryllium-7(7Be) tracer technique is an important complement to radioactive tracer techniques using 137Cs and 210Pb, which is specifically used to determine the short-term soil erosion rate. This paper reports a new model for radionuclide measurements to estimate soil redistribution for use with 7Be measurements. The approach was successfully tested from a study of short-term soil redistribution undertaken on two selected sloping sites. The estimates of soil redistribution obtained using the 7Be model were consistent with those obtained from erosion pins deployed within the same study area. The results confirm the potential for using 7Be to document soil erosion.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Iurian A-R, Dercon G, Adu-Gyamfi J, Mabit L, Kis-Benedek G, Ceccatelli A, Tarjan S, Blake W (2015) The interception and wash-off fraction of 7Be by bean plants in the context of its use as a soil radiotracer. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 306(1):301–308. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-3948-1
Saleh IH, Abdel-Halim AA (2018) Cosmogenic beryllium-7 in soil, rainwater and selected plant species to evaluate the vegetal interception of atmospheric fine particulate matter. Isot Environ Health Stud 54(4):392–402
Bai ZG, Wan GJ, Wang CS, Wan X, Huang RG, Santschi PH, Baskaran M (1996) 7Be: a geochemical tracer for seasonal erosion of surface soil in watershed of Lake Hongfeng, Guizhou. China Pedosphere 01:23–28
Blake WH, Walling DE, He Q (1999) Fallout beryllium-7 as a tracer in soil erosion investigations. Appl Radiat Isotopes. 599–605
Kaste JM, Elmore AJ, Vest KR, Okin GS (2011) Beryllium-7 in soils and vegetation along an arid precipitation gradient in Owens Valley California. Geophys Res Lett 38(9): 9401
Olsen CR, Larsen IL, Lowry PD, Cutshall NH, Todd JF, Wong GTF, Casey WH (1985) Atmospheric fluxes and marsh-soil inventories of 7Be and 210Pb. J Geophys Res Atmos D6:10487–10495. https://doi.org/10.1029/JD090iD06p10487
Taylor A, Blake WH, Couldrick L, Keith-Roach MJ (2012) Sorption behaviour of beryllium-7 and implications for its use as a sediment tracer. Geoderma. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2012.04.013
Wallbrink PJ, Murray AS (1996) Distribution and variability of 7Be in soils under different surface cover conditions and its potential for describing soil redistribution processes. Water Resour Res 2:467–476. https://doi.org/10.1029/95WR02973
Walling DE, He Q, Blake W (1999) Use of 7Be and 137Cs measurements to document short and medium-term rates of water-induced soil erosion on agricultural land. Water Resour Res, 3865–3874
Walling DE, Schuller P, Zhang Y, Iroume A (2009) Extending the timescale for using beryllium 7 measurements to document soil redistribution by erosion. Water Resour Res. https://doi.org/10.1029/2008wr007143
Wilson CG, Matisoff G, Whiting PJ (2003) Short-term erosion rates from a 7Be inventory balance. Earth Surf Proc Land 28:967–977. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.509
Bai ZG, Wan GJ (1999) Fallout radionuclides (7Be and 137Cs) in surface soils and lake sediments in west Yunnan and central Guizhou. China Chin Sci Bull S2:125–126
Doering C, Akber R, Heijnis H (2006) Vertical distributions of 210Pb excess, 7Be and 137Cs in selected grass covered soils in Southeast Queensland, Australia. J Environ Radioact. 135–147
Du M, Yang H, Chang Q, Minami K, Hatta T (1998) Caesium-137 fallout depth distribution in different soil profiles and significance for estimating soil erosion rate. Sci Soils
He Q, Walling DE (1997) The distribution of fallout 137Cs and 210Pb in undisturbed and cultivated soils. Appl Radiat lsot 5:677–690. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0969-8043(96)00302-8
Walling DE, He Q, Quine TA (1995) Use of caesium-137 and lead-210 as tracers in soil erosion investigations. Tracer Technol Hydrol Syst
Yang H, Du M, Chang Q, Minami K, Hatta T (1998) Quantitative model for estimating soil erosion rates using 137Cs. Pedosphere 3:211–220
Yang H, Du M, Zhao Q (2000) A quantitative model for estimating mean annual soil loss in cultivated land using 137Cs measurements. Soil Sci Plant Nutrit 1:69–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/00380768.2000.10408763
Zhang XB, Higgitt DL, Walling DE (1990) A preliminary assessment of the potential for using 137Cs to estimate rates of soil erosion in the Loess Plateau of China. Hydrol Sci 3:243–252. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626669009492427
Wallbrink PJ, Murray AS (1993) Use of fallout radionuclides as indicators of erosion processes. Hydrol Process 3:297–304. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.3360070307
Yang MY, Walling D, Tian JL, Liu PL (2006) Partitioning the contributions of sheet and rill erosion using beryllium-7 and cesium-137. Soil Sci Soc Am J 70(5):1579–1590
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41103047 and 41173094), a project funded by the Natural Science Research Project of Anhui Higher Education (Grant No. KJ2014A280). We are grateful to Biao Xie and Yehan Yan for the language editing. We thank Catherine Dandie, PhD, from Liwen Bianji, Edanz Editing China (www.liwenbianji.cn/ac), for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript. Thanks are extended to the anonymous reviewers and the editor, whose comments and suggestions have improved the original manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yang, B., Yang, H., Wang, X. et al. Use of beryllium-7 to document soil erosion associated with short-term rainfall. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 326, 1091–1097 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07406-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07406-z