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Predicting the Temporal Relationship between Soil Cesium-137 and Erosion Rate¹

ABSTRACT

A model was developed that predicts the amount of ¹³⁷Cs remaining in soil as a function of time and erosion rate. The model accounts for atmospheric deposition, radioactive decay, tillage dilution, and erosion transport of ¹³⁷Cs, as well as seasonal differences in ¹³⁷Cs deposition and erosion rates. The model was used to estimate minimum resolution of erosion estimates based on detection limits and accuracy of ¹³⁷Cs measurement by gamma spectroscopy, as a function of time and erosion rate. The analysis showed that under Saskatchewan conditions, changes in ¹³⁷Cs at a given site can be used to estimate erosion rates between 0.5 and 10 kg m^–2 yr^–1 with reasonable precision, provided the sampling interval is at least 15 yr. The relationship of fraction of ¹³⁷Cs lost vs. erosion as predicted by the model was compared with other methods being used. The model was used to estimate erosion from selected Saskatchewan soils where ¹³⁷Cs levels were measured in 1966 and again in 1981. Erosion rates calculated with the model varied from 1 kg m^–2 yr^–1 for a sandy loam soil in continuous forage to 19 kg m^–2 yr^–1 for a similar soil in a crop-fallow rotation. Erosion estimates using the model were higher than those calculated by assuming that soil loss was directly proportional to ¹³⁷Cs loss, especially when ¹³⁷Cs loss was high.

Key Words: model • gamma spectroscopy • soil loss estimates

¹ Publication R359 of the Saskatchewan Inst. of Pedology, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

² Research Officer and Professor, respectively, Dep. of Soil Sci., Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada S7N 0W0.

Received for publication June 10, 1983.

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