IAEA TECDOC SERIES Guidelines for Using Fallout Radionuclides to Strategies Assess Erosion and Effectiveness of Soil Conservation
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IAEA-TECDOC-1741 IAEA-TECDOC-1741 IAEA TECDOC SERIES Guidelines for Using Fallout Radionuclides to Assess Erosion and Effectiveness of Soil Conservation Strategies to Radionuclides Guidelines for Using Fallout IAEA-TECDOC-1741 Guidelines for Using Fallout Radionuclides to Assess Erosion and Effectiveness of Soil Conservation Strategies International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna ISBN 978–92–0–105414–2 ISSN 1011–4289 @ GUIDELINES FOR USING FALLOUT RADIONUCLIDES TO ASSESS EROSION AND EFFECTIVENESS OF SOIL CONSERVATION STRATEGIES IAEA-TECDOC-1741 GUIDELINES FOR USING FALLOUT RADIONUCLIDES TO ASSESS EROSION AND EFFECTIVENESS OF SOIL CONSERVATION STRATEGIES PREPARED BY THE JOINT FAO/IAEA DIVISION OF NUCLEAR TECHNIQUES IN FOOD AND AGRICULTURE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY VIENNA, 2014 COPYRIGHT NOTICE All IAEA scientific and technical publications are protected by the terms of the Universal Copyright Convention as adopted in 1952 (Berne) and as revised in 1972 (Paris). The copyright has since been extended by the World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva) to include electronic and virtual intellectual property. Permission to use whole or parts of texts contained in IAEA publications in printed or electronic form must be obtained and is usually subject to royalty agreements. Proposals for non-commercial reproductions and translations are welcomed and considered on a case-by-case basis. Enquiries should be addressed to the IAEA Publishing Section at: Marketing and Sales Unit, Publishing Section International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna International Centre PO Box 100 1400 Vienna, Austria fax: +43 1 2600 29302 tel.: +43 1 2600 22417 email: [email protected] http://www.iaea.org/books For further information on this publication, please contact: Soil and Water Management and Crop Nutrition Section International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna International Centre PO Box 100 1400 Vienna, Austria Email: [email protected] © IAEA, 2014 Printed by the IAEA in Austria June 2014 IAEA Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Guidelines for using fallout radionuclides to assess erosion and effectiveness of soil conservation strategies. — Vienna : International Atomic Energy Agency, 2014. p. ; 30 cm. — (iaea-tecdoc series, issn 1011–4289 ; no. 1741) isBn 978–92–0–105414–2 Includes bibliographical references. 1. Radioactive tracers in soil science. 2. Radioisotopes in soil chemistry. 3. soil conservation — research. i. international Atomic Energy Agency. II. Series. IAEAL 14–00907 FOREWORD Soil degradation currently affects 1.9 billion hectares of agricultural land worldwide, and the area of degraded land is increasing rapidly at a rate of 5 to 7 million hectares each year. Most of this degradation is caused by inappropriate and poor land management practices in agriculture and livestock production. Among all degradation processes, including soil acidification, salinization and nutrient mining, soil erosion is by far the most common type of land degradation, accounting for 84% of affected areas, with more than three quarters of the affected surface land area located in developing countries. Current concerns about the impacts of soil erosion on crop productivity and the environment, as well as the deployment of effective soil conservation measures, have generated an urgent need to obtain reliable quantitative data on the extent and actual rates of soil erosion to underpin sustainable soil conservation strategies. The quest for new approaches for assessing soil erosion to complement conventional methods has led to the development of methodologies based on the use of fallout radionuclides (FRNs) as soil erosion tracers. With increasing attention being paid to land degradation worldwide, this publication explains and demonstrates FRN based methods to trace soil movement and to assess soil erosion at different spatial and temporal scales, and to evaluate the effectiveness of soil conservation strategies to ensure sustainable land management in agricultural systems. This publication summarizes the experiences and knowledge gained since the end of the 1990s in the use of FRNs by the IAEA and by scientists from both developed and developing countries involved in IAEA research networks. This publication provides guidance in the application of FRNs to stakeholders involved in sustainable agricultural development. The IAEA wishes to thank the contributors involved in the preparation of this publication. The IAEA officers responsible for this publication were L. Mabit and G. Dercon of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture. EDITORIAL NOTE This publication has been prepared from the original material as submitted by the contributors and has not been edited by the editorial staff of the IAEA. The views expressed remain the responsibility of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of the IAEA or its Member States. Neither the IAEA nor its Member States assume any responsibility for consequences which may arise from the use of this publication. This publication does not address questions of responsibility, legal or otherwise, for acts or omissions on the part of any person. The use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement by the publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities and institutions or of the delimitation of their boundaries. The mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated as registered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed as an endorsement or recommendation on the part of the IAEA. The IAEA has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third party Internet web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. CONTENTS SUMMARY…………………………………………………………………………..……….1 Assessment of soil erosion and sedimentation: The role of fallout radionuclides……………3 L. Mabit, F. Zapata, M. Benmansour, C. Bernard, G. Dercon, D.E. Walling 137Cs: A widely used and validated medium-term soil tracer………………………...………27 L. Mabit, S. Chhem-Kieth, P. Dornhofer, A. Toloza, M. Benmansour, C. Bernard, E. Fulajtar, D.E. Walling 210 210 The use of excess Pb ( Pbex) as a soil and sediment tracer …………………...………..79 M. Benmansour, L. Mabit, P.N. Owens, S. Tarján, D.E. Walling The use of 7Be as a short term soil redistribution tracer…………………………….………105 L. Mabit, M. Benmansour, W.H. Blake, A. Taylor, S. Tarján, A. Toloza, D.E. Walling Conversion models and related software……………………………..……………………..125 D.E. Walling, Q. He, Y. Zhang 137 210 Combined use of Cs and Pbex to assess long term soil redistribution in a small agricultural field in Morocco…………………………………………….………….149 M. Benmansour, A. Nouira, L. Mabit, H. Bouksirate, R. Moussadek, R. Mrabet, M. Duchemin, A. Zouagui, H. Iaaich The use of 7Be and 137Cs in soil redistribution evaluation in Chile…………………….…...161 P. Schuller, D.E. Walling The combined use of 137Cs and stable isotopes to evaluate soil redistribution in mountainous grasslands, Switzerland …………………….....…………………………………….181 K. Meusburger, C. Alewell, N. Konz, M. Schaub, L. Mabit 137 210 7 Use of Cs, Pbex and Be for documenting soil redistribution: The future………………203 L. Mabit, M. Benmansour, G. Dercon, D.E. Walling IAEA PUBLICATIONS ON SOIL AND WATER MANAGEMENT AND CROP NUTRITION……………………………………………..…………….……………………209 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS..………………………………………………………………211 SUMMARY The conservation of soil and water resources has become a major concern for ensuring global food production. Soil erosion is a worldwide threat and represents the main mechanism of land degradation in both developed and developing countries. To control soil erosion, there is a need to monitor the impacts of land use and assess the effectiveness of specific soil conservation technologies. Fallout radionuclides (FRNs) have proven to be a cost effective tool to trace soil redistribution due to erosion within the landscape from plot to basin scale and can complement the information provided by conventional erosion measurements and modelling. The purpose of this publication is to provide up to date information on the use of FRNs, such as caesium-137 (137Cs), lead-210 (210Pb) and beryllium-7 (7Be), to assess soil erosion magnitude in agricultural land. It summarizes the state of the art in the use of these fallout radionuclides as tracers, the main assumptions, the requirements and their limitations, which have to be recognised when using FRNs as soil tracers. This publication includes nine papers. The first paper provides background information and highlights the specificity and usefulness of 137Cs, 210Pb and 7Be, compared to conventional non-nuclear approaches for measuring soil redistribution in agricultural landscapes and quantifying the effectiveness of soil conservation strategies in controlling and reducing soil erosion. The next three papers cover the theoretical basis and demonstrate the use of each FRN as a soil tracer: i.e. 137Cs (‘137Cs: A widely used and validated medium term soil tracer’), 210Pb 210 210 7 7 (‘The use of excess Pb ( Pbex) as a soil and sediment tracer’) and Be (‘The use of Be as a short term soil redistribution tracer’). The most well-known conservative and validated anthropogenic radionuclide used to investigate medium-term (50 years) soil redistribution and degradation is 137Cs. Therefore the main paper of this TECDOC