Work

Erosional history by combining 210Pbex and 137Cs methods with sediment fingerprinting and measurements

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Soil erosion is a major environmental threat worldwide, impacting the physical, chemical, and biological quality of soil and water. Accurate identification of primary sediment sources in a watershed to implement targeted management practices that reduce erosion and restore water quality, is essential and sediment sourcing is a tool commonly used to do this work. Some sediment sourcing methods not only determine the contributions of different sources but also provide estimates of average erosion/sedimentation intensity and sediment budget components. Therefore, the present study was conducted aimed to compare the average soil erosion intensity and sediment yield in the past 100-120, 60, and 15 years in the control sub-watershed of Khamsan representative-paired watershed. Furthermore, the contributions of land uses including rangeland, rainfed agriculture, irrigated agriculture, and orchards to sediment yield were compared using geochemical characteristics in 2021 with the corresponding results of the 137Cs method for the average 60-year period. In order to achieve the research objectives, a total of 88 soil samples were systematically randomly collected with appropriate distribution in different land uses for sediment source fingerprinting using both radionuclides and geochemical characteristics. The results showed that in the two recent periods of 100-120 and 60 years, the average gross erosion was estimated at 2.92 and 5.25 t ha-1 y-1, respectively, and the average net erosion was estimated at 2.85 and 5.05 t ha-1 y-1, respectively. Furthermore, the contributions of rainfed agriculture and rangeland to sediment yield in 2021 were 72.26% and 7.96%, respectively, and in the 137Cs method for the average 60-year period, they were 85.49% and 8.93%, respectively. The results also showed that the increase in sediment yield in the past 60 years, particularly in rainfed agriculture, was due to the expansion of this land use into sloping and plowed areas on hillslopes.

Source: Scientific Reports

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-02512-y

Authors: Negin Ghaderi Dehkordi, Abdulvahed Khaledi Darvishan, Paolo Porto, Mohamad Reza Zare

Institutions: Tarbiat Modares University, Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, University of Reggio Calabria, University of Isfahan

Language: English

Topic: Soil erosion and sediment transport

Subfield: Soil Science

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

SDGs: Life on land, Clean water and sanitation

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,690