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.
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.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Original research article
| 
11 Jul 2023
Original research article |
| 11 Jul 2023
| 11 Jul 2023
Validating plutonium-239+240 as a novel soil redistribution tracer – a comparison to measured sediment yield
Katrin Meusburger
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Paolo Porto
Dipartimento di Agraria, Università degli Studi Mediterranea di
Reggio Calabria, Reggio Calabria, Italy
Faculty of Geographical Sciences, Kazimierz Wielki University, 85-033 Bydgoszcz, Poland
Judith Kobler Waldis
Environmental Geosciences, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
Christine Alewell
Environmental Geosciences, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
Related authors
Gerald Dicen, Floriane Guillevic, Surya Gupta, Pierre-Alexis Chaboche, Katrin Meusburger, Pierre Sabatier, Olivier Evrard, and Christine Alewell
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1529–1549, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1529-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1529-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Fallout radionuclides (FRNs) such as 137Cs and 239+240Pu are considered to be critical tools in various environmental research. Here, we compiled reference soil data on these FRNs from the literature to build a comprehensive database. Using this database, we determined the distribution and sources of 137Cs and 239+240Pu. We also demonstrated how the database can be used to identify the environmental factors that influence their distribution using a machine learning algorithm.
Marco M. Lehmann, Josie Geris, Ilja van Meerveld, Daniele Penna, Youri Rothfuss, Matteo Verdone, Pertti Ala-Aho, Matyas Arvai, Alise Babre, Philippe Balandier, Fabian Bernhard, Lukrecija Butorac, Simon Damien Carrière, Natalie C. Ceperley, Zuosinan Chen, Alicia Correa, Haoyu Diao, David Dubbert, Maren Dubbert, Fabio Ercoli, Marius G. Floriancic, Teresa E. Gimeno, Damien Gounelle, Frank Hagedorn, Christophe Hissler, Frédéric Huneau, Alberto Iraheta, Tamara Jakovljević, Nerantzis Kazakis, Zoltan Kern, Karl Knaebel, Johannes Kobler, Jiří Kocum, Charlotte Koeber, Gerbrand Koren, Angelika Kübert, Dawid Kupka, Samuel Le Gall, Aleksi Lehtonen, Thomas Leydier, Philippe Malagoli, Francesca Sofia Manca di Villahermosa, Chiara Marchina, Núria Martínez-Carreras, Nicolas Martin-StPaul, Hannu Marttila, Aline Meyer Oliveira, Gaël Monvoisin, Natalie Orlowski, Kadi Palmik-Das, Aurel Persoiu, Andrei Popa, Egor Prikaziuk, Cécile Quantin, Katja T. Rinne-Garmston, Clara Rohde, Martin Sanda, Matthias Saurer, Daniel Schulz, Michael Paul Stockinger, Christine Stumpp, Jean-Stéphane Venisse, Lukas Vlcek, Stylianos Voudouris, Björn Weeser, Mark E. Wilkinson, Giulia Zuecco, and Katrin Meusburger
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-409, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-409, 2024
Revised manuscript under review for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
This study describes a unique large-scale isotope dataset to study water dynamics in European forests. Researchers collected data from 40 beech and spruce forest sites in spring and summer 2023, using a standardized method to ensure consistency. The results show that water sources for trees change between seasons and vary by tree species. This large dataset offers valuable information for understanding plant water use, improving ecohydrological models, and mapping water cycles across Europe.
Lauren Zweifel, Maxim Samarin, Katrin Meusburger, and Christine Alewell
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 3421–3437, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-3421-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-3421-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Mountainous grassland areas can be severely affected by soil erosion, such as by shallow landslides. With an automated mapping approach we are able to locate shallow-landslide sites on aerial images for 10 different study sites across Swiss mountain regions covering a total of 315 km2. Using a statistical model we identify important explanatory variables for shallow-landslide occurrence for the individual sites as well as across all regions, which highlight slope, aspect and terrain roughness.
Florian Wilken, Peter Fiener, Michael Ketterer, Katrin Meusburger, Daniel Iragi Muhindo, Kristof van Oost, and Sebastian Doetterl
SOIL, 7, 399–414, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-399-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-399-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This study demonstrates the usability of fallout radionuclides 239Pu and 240Pu as a tool to assess soil degradation processes in tropical Africa, which is particularly valuable in regions with limited infrastructure and challenging monitoring conditions for landscape-scale soil degradation monitoring. The study shows no indication of soil redistribution in forest sites but substantial soil redistribution in cropland (sedimentation >40 cm in 55 years) with high variability.
Maral Khodadadi, Christine Alewell, Mohammad Mirzaei, Ehssan Ehssan-Malahat, Farrokh Asadzadeh, Peter Strauss, and Katrin Meusburger
SOIL Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2021-2, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2021-2, 2021
Revised manuscript not accepted
Short summary
Short summary
Forest soils store carbon and therefore play an important role in mitigating climate change impacts. Yet again, deforestation for farming and grazing purposes has grown rapidly over the last decades. Thus, its impacts on soil erosion and soil quality should be understood in order to adopt sustainable management measures. The results of this study indicated that deforestation can prompt soil loss by multiple orders of magnitude and deteriorate the soil quality in both topsoil and subsoil.
Gerald Dicen, Floriane Guillevic, Surya Gupta, Pierre-Alexis Chaboche, Katrin Meusburger, Pierre Sabatier, Olivier Evrard, and Christine Alewell
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1529–1549, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1529-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1529-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Fallout radionuclides (FRNs) such as 137Cs and 239+240Pu are considered to be critical tools in various environmental research. Here, we compiled reference soil data on these FRNs from the literature to build a comprehensive database. Using this database, we determined the distribution and sources of 137Cs and 239+240Pu. We also demonstrated how the database can be used to identify the environmental factors that influence their distribution using a machine learning algorithm.
Paolo Porto
Proc. IAHS, 387, 41–46, https://doi.org/10.5194/piahs-387-41-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/piahs-387-41-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
During the last decades, a general increase in heavy rainfall events has caused changes in soil erosion rates and strongly affected the human activities in mountain areas. In this context, plot experiments carried out in southern Italy that involve the use of 137Cs and 210Pbex measurements indicated an increase in soil erosion rates during the last 15–20 years and suggest the use of this technique to detect climate change in mountain areas.
Marco M. Lehmann, Josie Geris, Ilja van Meerveld, Daniele Penna, Youri Rothfuss, Matteo Verdone, Pertti Ala-Aho, Matyas Arvai, Alise Babre, Philippe Balandier, Fabian Bernhard, Lukrecija Butorac, Simon Damien Carrière, Natalie C. Ceperley, Zuosinan Chen, Alicia Correa, Haoyu Diao, David Dubbert, Maren Dubbert, Fabio Ercoli, Marius G. Floriancic, Teresa E. Gimeno, Damien Gounelle, Frank Hagedorn, Christophe Hissler, Frédéric Huneau, Alberto Iraheta, Tamara Jakovljević, Nerantzis Kazakis, Zoltan Kern, Karl Knaebel, Johannes Kobler, Jiří Kocum, Charlotte Koeber, Gerbrand Koren, Angelika Kübert, Dawid Kupka, Samuel Le Gall, Aleksi Lehtonen, Thomas Leydier, Philippe Malagoli, Francesca Sofia Manca di Villahermosa, Chiara Marchina, Núria Martínez-Carreras, Nicolas Martin-StPaul, Hannu Marttila, Aline Meyer Oliveira, Gaël Monvoisin, Natalie Orlowski, Kadi Palmik-Das, Aurel Persoiu, Andrei Popa, Egor Prikaziuk, Cécile Quantin, Katja T. Rinne-Garmston, Clara Rohde, Martin Sanda, Matthias Saurer, Daniel Schulz, Michael Paul Stockinger, Christine Stumpp, Jean-Stéphane Venisse, Lukas Vlcek, Stylianos Voudouris, Björn Weeser, Mark E. Wilkinson, Giulia Zuecco, and Katrin Meusburger
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-409, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-409, 2024
Revised manuscript under review for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
This study describes a unique large-scale isotope dataset to study water dynamics in European forests. Researchers collected data from 40 beech and spruce forest sites in spring and summer 2023, using a standardized method to ensure consistency. The results show that water sources for trees change between seasons and vary by tree species. This large dataset offers valuable information for understanding plant water use, improving ecohydrological models, and mapping water cycles across Europe.
Adrian L. Collins, Des E. Walling, Valentin Golosov, Paolo Porto, Allen C. Gellis, Yuri Jaques da Silva, and Sergey Chalov
Proc. IAHS, 385, 489–497, https://doi.org/10.5194/piahs-385-489-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/piahs-385-489-2024, 2024
Pedro V. G. Batista, Peter Fiener, Simon Scheper, and Christine Alewell
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 3753–3770, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3753-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3753-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Patchy agricultural landscapes have a large number of small fields, which are separated by linear features such as roads and field borders. When eroded sediments are transported out of the agricultural fields by surface runoff, these features can influence sediment connectivity. By use of measured data and a simulation model, we demonstrate how a dense road network (and its drainage system) facilitates sediment transport from fields to water courses in a patchy Swiss agricultural catchment.
Lena Wohlgemuth, Pasi Rautio, Bernd Ahrends, Alexander Russ, Lars Vesterdal, Peter Waldner, Volkmar Timmermann, Nadine Eickenscheidt, Alfred Fürst, Martin Greve, Peter Roskams, Anne Thimonier, Manuel Nicolas, Anna Kowalska, Morten Ingerslev, Päivi Merilä, Sue Benham, Carmen Iacoban, Günter Hoch, Christine Alewell, and Martin Jiskra
Biogeosciences, 19, 1335–1353, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-1335-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-1335-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Gaseous mercury is present in the atmosphere all over the globe. During the growing season, plants take up mercury from the air in a similar way as CO2. We investigated which factors impact this vegetational mercury uptake by analyzing a large dataset of leaf mercury uptake rates of trees in Europe. As a result, we conclude that mercury uptake is foremost controlled by tree-intrinsic traits like physiological activity but also by climatic factors like dry conditions in the air and in soils.
Lauren Zweifel, Maxim Samarin, Katrin Meusburger, and Christine Alewell
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 3421–3437, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-3421-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-3421-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Mountainous grassland areas can be severely affected by soil erosion, such as by shallow landslides. With an automated mapping approach we are able to locate shallow-landslide sites on aerial images for 10 different study sites across Swiss mountain regions covering a total of 315 km2. Using a statistical model we identify important explanatory variables for shallow-landslide occurrence for the individual sites as well as across all regions, which highlight slope, aspect and terrain roughness.
Florian Wilken, Peter Fiener, Michael Ketterer, Katrin Meusburger, Daniel Iragi Muhindo, Kristof van Oost, and Sebastian Doetterl
SOIL, 7, 399–414, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-399-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-399-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This study demonstrates the usability of fallout radionuclides 239Pu and 240Pu as a tool to assess soil degradation processes in tropical Africa, which is particularly valuable in regions with limited infrastructure and challenging monitoring conditions for landscape-scale soil degradation monitoring. The study shows no indication of soil redistribution in forest sites but substantial soil redistribution in cropland (sedimentation >40 cm in 55 years) with high variability.
Maral Khodadadi, Christine Alewell, Mohammad Mirzaei, Ehssan Ehssan-Malahat, Farrokh Asadzadeh, Peter Strauss, and Katrin Meusburger
SOIL Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2021-2, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2021-2, 2021
Revised manuscript not accepted
Short summary
Short summary
Forest soils store carbon and therefore play an important role in mitigating climate change impacts. Yet again, deforestation for farming and grazing purposes has grown rapidly over the last decades. Thus, its impacts on soil erosion and soil quality should be understood in order to adopt sustainable management measures. The results of this study indicated that deforestation can prompt soil loss by multiple orders of magnitude and deteriorate the soil quality in both topsoil and subsoil.
Claudia Mignani, Jörg Wieder, Michael A. Sprenger, Zamin A. Kanji, Jan Henneberger, Christine Alewell, and Franz Conen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 657–664, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-657-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-657-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Most precipitation above land starts with ice in clouds. It is promoted by extremely rare particles. Some ice-nucleating particles (INPs) cause cloud droplets to already freeze above −15°C, a temperature at which many clouds begin to snow. We found that the abundance of such INPs among other particles of similar size is highest in precipitating air masses and lowest when air carries desert dust. This brings us closer to understanding the interactions between land, clouds, and precipitation.
Lena Wohlgemuth, Stefan Osterwalder, Carl Joseph, Ansgar Kahmen, Günter Hoch, Christine Alewell, and Martin Jiskra
Biogeosciences, 17, 6441–6456, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-6441-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-6441-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Mercury uptake by trees from the air represents an important but poorly quantified pathway in the global mercury cycle. We determined mercury uptake fluxes by leaves and needles at 10 European forests which were 4 times larger than mercury deposition via rainfall. The amount of mercury taken up by leaves and needles depends on their age and growing height on the tree. Scaling up our measurements to the forest area of Europe, we estimate that each year 20 t of mercury is taken up by trees.
Cited articles
Alewell, C., Meusburger, K., Juretzko, G., Mabit, L., and Ketterer, M. E.:
Suitability of 239+240Pu and 137Cs as tracers for soil erosion assessment
in mountain grasslands, Chemosphere, 103, 274–280,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2013.12.016, 2014.
Alewell, C., Birkholz, A., Meusburger, K., Schindler Wildhaber, Y., and Mabit, L.: Quantitative sediment source attribution with compound-specific isotope analysis in a C3 plant-dominated catchment (central Switzerland), Biogeosciences, 13, 1587–1596, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-1587-2016, 2016.
Alewell, C., Pitois, A., Meusburger, K., Ketterer, M., and Mabit, L.:
Pu239+240 from “contaminant” to soil erosion tracer: Where do we stand?,
Earth-Sci. Rev., 172, 107–123, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.07.009, 2017.
Alewell, C., Ringeval, B., Ballabio, C., Robinson, D. A., Panagos, P., and
Borrelli, P.: Global phosphorus shortage will be aggravated by soil erosion,
Nat. Commun., 11, 4546, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18326-7, 2020.
Amundson, R., Berhe, A. A., Hopmans, J. W., Olson, C., Sztein, A. E., and
Sparks, D. L.: Soil and human security in the 21st century, Science, 348, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1261071,
2015.
Arata, L., Alewell, C., Frenkel, E., A'Campo-Neuen, A., Iurian, A.-R.,
Ketterer, M. E., Mabit, L., and Meusburger, K.: Modelling Deposition and
Erosion rates with RadioNuclides (MODERN) – Part 2: A comparison of
different models to convert 239+240Pu inventories into soil redistribution
rates at unploughed sites, J. Environ. Radioactiv., 162–163,
97–106, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2016.05.009, 2016a.
Arata, L., Meusburger, K., Frenkel, E., A'Campo-Neuen, A., Iurian, A.-R.,
Ketterer, M. E., Mabit, L., and Alewell, C.: Modelling Deposition and
Erosion rates with RadioNuclides (MODERN) – Part 1: A new conversion model
to derive soil redistribution rates from inventories of fallout
radionuclides, J. Environ. Radioactiv., 162–163, 45–55,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2016.05.008, 2016b.
Avolio, S., Ciancio, O., Grinovero, C., Iovino, F., Mirabella, A., Raglione,
M., Sfalanga, M., and Torri, D.: Effetti del tipo di bosco sull'entità
dell'erosione in unità idrologiche della Calabria – Modelli erosivi,
Annali Istituto Sperimentale Selvicoltura, 11, 45–131, 1980.
Borrelli, P., Robinson, D. A., Fleischer, L. R., Lugato, E., Ballabio, C.,
Alewell, C., Meusburger, K., Modugno, S., Schütt, B., Ferro, V.,
Bagarello, V., van Oost, K., Montanarella, L., and Panagos, P.: An
assessment of the global impact of 21st century land use change on soil
erosion, Nat. Commun., 8, 2013, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02142-7, 2017.
Cantore, V., Iovino, F., and Puglisi, S.: Influenza della forma di governo
sui deflussi liquidi e solidi in piantagioni di eucalitti, L'Italia
Forestale e Montana, 5, 463–477, 1994.
Capra, A., Porto, P., and La Spada, C.: Long-term variation of rainfall erosivity in Calabria (southern Italy), Theor. Appl. Climatol., 128, 141–158, 2017.
Froehlich, M. B., Dietze, M. M. A., Tims, S. G., and Fifield, L. K.: A
comparison of fallout U-236 and Pu-239 uptake by Australian vegetation,
J. Environ. Radioactiv., 151, 558–562,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2015.06.021, 2016.
Hoo, W. T., Fifield, L. K., Tims, S. G., Fujioka, T., and Mueller, N.: Using
fallout plutonium as a probe for erosion assessment, J.
Environ. Radioactiv., 102, 937–942, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2010.06.010,
2011.
IAEA: Guidelines for using Fallout radionuclides to assess erosion and
effectiveness of soil conservation strategies, International Atomic Energy
Agency, Vienna, Austria, 224 pp., 2014.
Kato, H., Onda, Y., and Tanaka, Y.: Using Cs-137 and Pb-210(ex) measurements
to estimate soil redistribution rates on semi-arid grassland in Mongolia,
Geomorphology, 114, 508–519, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2009.08.009, 2010.
Kelley, J. M., Bond, L. A., and Beasley, T. M.: Global distribution of Pu
isotopes and 237Np, Sci. Total Environ., 237–238, 483–500,
https://doi.org/10.1016/s0048-9697(99)00160-6, 1999.
Ketterer, M. E., Hafer, K. M., Link, C. L., Kolwaite, D., Wilson, J., and
Mietelski, J. W.: Resolving global versus local/regional Pu sources in the
environment using sector ICP-MS, J. Anal. Atom. Spectrom.,
19, 241–245, https://doi.org/10.1039/b302903d, 2004.
Ketterer, M. E., Zheng, J., and Yamada, M.: Applications of Transuranics as
Tracers and Chronometers in the Environment, Handbook of Environmental
Isotope Geochemistry, Vols. 1 and 2, edited by: Baskaran, M., Springer-Verlag
Berlin, Berlin, 395–417, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10637-8_20, 2011.
Lal, R., Tims, S. G., Fifield, L. K., Wasson, R. J., and Howe, D.:
Applicability of Pu-239 as a tracer for soil erosion in the wet-dry tropics
of northern Australia, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. B, 294, 577–583, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2012.07.041, 2013.
Lujaniene, G., Plukis, A., Kimtys, E., Remeikis, V., Jankunaite, D., and
Ogorodnikov, B. I.: Study of Cs-137, Sr-90, Pu-239, Pu-240, Pu-238 and Am-241
behavior in the Chernobyl soil, J. Radioanal. Nucl.
Ch., 251, 59–68, https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015185011201, 2002.
Mabit, L., Benmansour, M., and Walling, D. E.: Comparative advantages and
limitations of the fallout radionuclides Cs-137, Pb-210(ex) and Be-7 for
assessing soil erosion and sedimentation, J. Environ.
Radioactiv., 99, 1799–1807, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2008.08.009, 2008.
Mabit, L., Benmansour, M., Abril , J. M., Walling, D. E., Meusburger, K.,
Iurian, A. R., Bernard, C., Tarján, S., Owens, P. N., Blake, W. H., and
Alewell, C.: Fallout 210Pbex as a soil and sediment tracer in
catchment sediment budget investigations: A review, Earth-Sci. Rev.,
138, 335–351, 2014.
Matisoff, G., Bonniwell, E. C., and Whiting, P. J.: Soil erosion and
sediment sources in an Ohio watershed using beryllium-7, cesium-137, and
lead-210, J. Environ. Qual., 31, 54–61, 2002.
Meusburger, K., Mabit, L., Ketterer, M., Park, J.-H., Sandor, T., Porto, P.,
and Alewell, C.: A multi-radionuclide approach to evaluate the suitability
of Pu239+240 as soil erosion tracer, Sci. Total Environ.,
566, 1489–1499, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.06.035, 2016.
Meusburger, K., Porto, P., Mabit, L., La Spada, C., Arata, L., and Alewell,
C.: Excess Lead-210 and Plutonium-239+240: Two suitable radiogenic soil
erosion tracers for mountain grassland sites, Environ. Res., 160,
195–202, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2017.09.020, 2018.
Meusburger, K., Evrard, O., Alewell, C., Borrelli, P., Cinelli, G.,
Ketterer, M., Mabit, L., Panagos, P., van Oost, K., and Ballabio, C.:
Plutonium aided reconstruction of caesium atmospheric fallout in European
topsoils, Sci. Rep., 10, 11858, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68736-2, 2020.
Meusburger, K., Porto, P., Kobler-Waldis, J., and Alewell, C.: Plutonium-239+240 and sediment yield data for a small catchment in Southern Italy, EnviDat [data set], https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.413, 2023.
Michelotti, E. A., Whicker, J. J., Eisele, W. F., Breshears, D. D., and
Kirchner, T. B.: Modeling aeolian transport of soil-bound plutonium:
considering infrequent but normal environmental disturbances is critical in
estimating future dose, J. Environ. Radioactiv., 120, 73–80,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2013.01.011, 2013.
Panagos, P., Imeson, A., Meusburger, K., Borrelli, P., Poesen, J., and
Alewell, C.: Soil Conservation in Europe: Wish or Reality?, Land Degrad. Dev., 27, 1547–1551, https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.2538, 2016.
Porto, P. and Callegari, G.: Comparing long-term observations of sediment
yield with estimates of soil erosion rate based on recent Cs-137
measurements. Results from an experimental catchment in Southern Italy,
Hydrol. Process., 36, e14663, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.14663, 2022.
Porto, P. and Walling, D. E.: Validating the use of Cs-137 and Pb-210(ex)
measurements to estimate rates of soil loss from cultivated land in southern
Italy, J. Environ. Radioactiv., 106, 47–57,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2011.11.005, 2012.
Porto, P., Walling, D. E., and Ferro, V.: Validating the use of caesium-137
measurements to estimate soil erosion rates in a small drainage basin in
Calabria, Southern Italy, J. Hydrol., 248, 93–108,
https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-1694(01)00389-4, 2001.
Porto, P., Walling, D. E., Ferro, V., and Di Stefano, C.: Validating erosion
rate estimates provided by caesium-137 measurements for two small forested
catchments in Calabria, southern Italy, Land Degrad. Dev.,
14, 389–408, https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.561, 2003.
Porto, P., Walling, D. E., and Callegari, G.: Using 137Cs and 210Pbex
measurements to investigate the sediment budget of a small forested
catchment in southern Italy, Hydrol. Process., 27, 795–806,
https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.9471, 2013.
Porto, P., Walling, D. E., Alewell, C., Callegari, G., Mabit, L., Mallimo,
N., Meusburger, K., and Zehringer, M.: Use of a 137Cs re-sampling technique
to investigate temporal changes in soil erosion and sediment mobilization
for a small forested catchment in southern Italy, J. Environ.
Radioactiv., 138, 137–148, 2014.
Porto, P., Cogliandro, V., and Callegari, G.: Exploring the performance of
the SEDD model to predict sediment yield in eucalyptus plantations.
Long-term results from an experimental catchment in Southern Italy, IOP
C. Ser. Earth Env., 107, 012020,
https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/107/1/012020, 2018.
Porto, P., Bacchi, M., Preiti, G., Romeo, M., and Monti, M.: Combining plot
measurements and a calibrated RUSLE model to investigate recent changes in
soil erosion in upland areas in Southern Italy, J. Soils Sediments, 22,
1010–1022, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-021-03119-2, 2022.
Qiao, J. X., Hansen, V., Hou, X. L., Aldahan, A., and Possnert, G.:
Speciation analysis of I-129, Cs-137, Th-232, U-238, Pu-239 and Pu-240 in
environmental soil and sediment, Appl. Radiat. Isotopes, 70,
1698–1708, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2012.04.006, 2012.
Reichstein, M., Bahn, M., Ciais, P., Frank, D., Mahecha, M. D., Seneviratne,
S. I., Zscheischler, J., Beer, C., Buchmann, N., Frank, D. C., Papale, D.,
Rammig, A., Smith, P., Thonicke, K., van der Velde, M., Vicca, S., Walz, A.,
and Wattenbach, M.: Climate extremes and the carbon cycle, Nature, 500,
287–295, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12350, 2013.
Schimmack, W., Auerswald, K., and Bunzl, K.: Can Pu239+240 replace Cs-137
as an erosion tracer in agricultural landscapes contaminated with Chernobyl
fallout?, J. Environ. Radioactiv., 53, 41–57,
10.1016/s0265-931x(00)00117-x, 2001.
Sorriso-Valvo, M., Bryan, R. B., Yair, A., Iovino, F., and Antronico, L.:
Impact of afforestation on hydrological response and sediment production in
a small Calabrian catchment, Catena, 25, 89–104, https://doi.org/10.1016/0341-8162(95)00002-A, 1995.
Teramage, M. T., Onda, Y., Wakiyama, Y., Kato, H., Kanda, T., and Tamura,
K.: Atmospheric Pb-210 as a tracer for soil organic carbon transport in a
coniferous forest, Environ. Sci.-Proc. Imp., 17, 110–119,
https://doi.org/10.1039/c4em00402g, 2015.
Tims, S. G., Everett, S. E., Fifield, L. K., Hancock, G. J., and Bartley,
R.: Plutonium as a tracer of soil and sediment movement in the Herbert
River, Australia, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. B, 268, 1150–1154, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2009.10.121, 2010.
Wallbrink, P. J. and Murray, A. S.: Determining soil loss using the
inventory ratio of excess lead-210 to cesium-137, Soil Sci. Soc.
Am. J., 60, 1201–1208, 1996.
Walling, D. E., He, Q., and Appleby, P. G.: Conversion models for use in
soil-erosion, soil-redistribution and sedimentation investigations, in:
Handbook for the Assessment of Soil Erosion and Sedimentation using
Environmental Radionuclides, edited by: Zapata, F., Kluwer Academic Publishers, the Netherlands,
111–164, ISBN 1-4020-1041-9, 2002.
Walling, D. E., Zhang, Y., and He, Q.: Conversion models and related
software, in: Guidelines for Using Fallout Radionuclides to Assess Erosion
and Effectiveness of Soil Conservation Strategies, IAEA-TECDOC-1741, Vienna,
125–148, ISBN 978–92–0–105414–2, 2014.
Wilken, F., Fiener, P., Ketterer, M., Meusburger, K., Muhindo, D. I., van Oost, K., and Doetterl, S.: Assessing soil redistribution of forest and cropland sites in wet tropical Africa using 239+240Pu fallout radionuclides, SOIL, 7, 399–414, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-399-2021, 2021.
Wood, S. N.: Low-rank scale-invariant tensor product smooths for generalized
additive mixed models, Biometrics, 62, 1025–1036,
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0420.2006.00574.x, 2006.
Xiao, H., Liu, G., Liu, P., Zheng, F., Zhang, J., and Hu, F.: Sediment
transport capacity of concentrated flows on steep loessial slope with
erodible beds, Sci. Rep., 7, 2350, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-02565-8, 2017.
Xu, Y., Pan, S., Wu, M., Zhang, K., and Hao, Y.: Association of Plutonium
isotopes with natural soil particles of different size and comparison with
137Cs, Sci. Total Environ., 581–582, 541–549, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.12.162, 2017.
Xu, Y. H., Qiao, J. X., Hou, X. L., and Pan, S. M.: Plutonium in Soils from
Northeast China and Its Potential Application for Evaluation of Soil
Erosion, Sci. Rep., 3, 3506, https://doi.org/10.1038/srep03506, 2013.
Xu, Y. H., Qiao, J. X., Pan, S. M., Hou, X. L., Roos, P., and Cao, L. G.:
Plutonium as a tracer for soil erosion assessment in northeast China,
Sci. Total Environ., 511, 176–185,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.12.006, 2015.
Zapata, F.: The use of environmental radionuclides as tracers in soil
erosion and sedimentation investigations: recent advances and future
developments, Soil Till. Res., 69, 3–13, 2003.
Zhou, G. Y., Morris, J. D., Yan, J. H., Yu, Z. Y., and Peng, S. L.:
Hydrological impacts of reafforestation with eucalypts and indigenous
species: a case study in southern China, Forest Ecol. Manage., 167,
209–222, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-1127(01)00694-6, 2002.
Zuazo, V. C. H. D. and Pleguezuelo, C. R. O. R.: Soil-Erosion and Runoff
Prevention by Plant Covers: A Review, in: Sustainable Agriculture, edited
by: Lichtfouse, E., Navarrete, M., Debaeke, P., Véronique, S., and
Alberola, C., Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 785–811, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2666-8, ISBN 978-90-481-2665-1, 2009.
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.
Quantifying soil redistribution rates is a global challenge. Radiogenic tracers such as...
