Abstract
Twelve to seventeen percentage of the European soil is threatened by water erosion and around 13% of Austrian territory is affected. Only scarce information based on conventional assessment and measurements are available on erosion and sedimentation rates in Austria. The magnitude of sedimentation processes was evaluated in a small agricultural Austrian watershed using both nuclear techniques (137Cs and 210Pb) and conventional non-isotopic measurements in runoff erosion plots during the 1994–2006 periods. Using the erosion data provided by the plots (29.4 t ha–1 year–1 for the conventional tilled plot, 4.2 t ha–1 year–1 for the plot receiving conservation tillage and 2.7 t ha–1 year–1 for the plot receiving direct seeding treatment) and the 137Cs soil profiles content and the conversion model mass balance 2 (MBM 2), a sedimentation rate of 13.2 t–1 ha–1 year–1 (value determined down slope of the runoff plot under direct seeding treatment) to 50.5 t–1 ha–1 year–1 (value determined in the lowest sedimentation area of the watershed under conventional tillage) was estimated. Under the experimental condition the conservation tillage and direct seeding system were effective in reducing the sedimentation magnitude by 65%. However, due to a high variability of the initial fallout inventory and a high γ-spectrometry measurement error, information provided by the 210Pb method was not usable in the study area. The combined use of conventional erosion measurements and nuclear techniques appears to be a promising and complementary approach to evaluate sedimentation processes.
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Acknowledgements
This study was conducted in support of the FAO/IAEA Co-ordinated Research Project “Assess the effectiveness of soil conservation measures for sustainable watershed management using fallout radionuclides” (D1.50.08). The authors would like to thank Dr. Gudni Hardarson, Head of the Soil Science Unit and the Dr. Felipe Zapata (Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition Section) for suggestions to improve the manuscript.
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Mabit, L., Klik, A., Toloza, A. (2010). Radioisotopic Measurements (137Cs and 210Pb) to Assess Erosion and Sedimentation Processes: Case Study in Austria. In: Zdruli, P., Pagliai, M., Kapur, S., Faz Cano, A. (eds) Land Degradation and Desertification: Assessment, Mitigation and Remediation. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8657-0_31
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