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Applications and limitations of chernobyl radiocaesium measurements in a carpathian erosion investigation, Poland
Author(s) -
Higgitt D. L.,
Froehlich W.,
Walling D. E.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
land degradation and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1099-145X
pISSN - 1085-3278
DOI - 10.1002/ldr.3400030103
Subject(s) - erosion , radionuclide , environmental science , test site , sediment , hydrology (agriculture) , deposition (geology) , physical geography , geography , geology , mining engineering , geomorphology , quantum mechanics , physics , geotechnical engineering
The bomb‐test fallout radionuclide caesium‐137, has found increasing application in geomorphological investigations of soil erosion. Comparatively little work has investigated the potential for using 134 Cs and 137 Cs derived from the 1986 Chernobyl accident. Results are reported from an agricultural foothill environment in the Beskidy Mountains of southern Poland. The high degree of spatial variability associated with Chernobyl fallout deposition poses considerable limitations on the potential for using radiocaesium measurements to elucidate detailed patterns of soil loss. Despite this problem, the redistribution of radiocaesium from field plots to terrace edges suggests a means for estimating the overall budgets for sediment transfer on cultivated slopes.