Validating plutonium-239+240 as  a novel soil redistribution tracer –  a comparison to measured sediment yield

Meusburger, Katrin; Porto, Paolo; Kobler Waldis, Judith; Alewell, Christine

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-399-2023

Articles | Volume 9, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-399-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-399-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 9, issue 2

Original research article

|

11 Jul 2023

Original research article |

| 11 Jul 2023

Validating plutonium-239+240 as a novel soil redistribution tracer – a comparison to measured sediment yield

Katrin Meusburger, Paolo Porto, Judith Kobler Waldis, and Christine Alewell

Data sets

Plutonium-239+240 and sediment yield data for a small catchment in Southern Italy K. Meusburger, P. Porto, J. Kobler-Waldis, and C. Alewell https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.413

Short summary

Quantifying soil redistribution rates is a global challenge. Radiogenic tracers such as plutonium, namely ^239+240Pu, released to the atmosphere by atmospheric bomb testing in the 1960s are promising tools to quantify soil redistribution. Direct validation of ^239+240Pu as soil redistribution is, however, still missing. Here, we used a unique sediment yield time series in southern Italy, reaching back to the initial fallout of ^239+240Pu to verify ^239+240Pu as a soil redistribution tracer.