The study aimed to identify hydrological and landscape factors that influence sediment transport in 2 agricultural catchments in north‐western France—Moulinet and Kervidy‐Naizin—with the same climate, size, and bedrock but with contrasting suspended sediment (SS) fluxes. Discharge and SS concentrations were continuously monitored at the catchment outlets for 9 hydrological years. Data were examined at annual, seasonal, and individual storm‐flow event scales. Storm events were classified into 3 types—single small, successive, and major events—whose effect on sediment transport was studied. At the annual scale, SS yields were higher in Moulinet (16–63 × 103 kg km−2) than in Kervidy‐Naizin (3–22 × 103 kg km−2) despite similar water fluxes. However, Kervidy‐Naizin had higher potential for hillslope erosion because of more frequent occurrence of saturation excess runoff, more frequent bare soil in cultivated area, and fewer hedgerows. Major storm events were also stronger in this catchment. Although high SS concentrations and fluxes occurred only during a few major events in Kervidy‐Naizin, SS export was always substantial throughout the year in Moulinet. We hypothesised that bank degradation due to cattle trampling generated the higher SS export in the Moulinet catchment. This hypothesis was confirmed by the large decrease in SS fluxes following construction of watering troughs in the middle of the study period. In the Kervidy‐Naizin catchment, natural woody vegetation or grass buffer strips along the stream effectively protect the stream from bank erosion or a possible influx of hillslope erosion particles, except during some major events in winter.

The environmental distribution of Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis, remains poorly understood. B. pseudomallei is known to have the ability to occupy a variety of environmental niches, particularly in soil. This paper provides novel information about a putative association of soil biogeochemical heterogeneity and the vertical distribution of B. pseudomallei. We investigated (1) the distribution of B. pseudomallei along a 300-cm deep soil profile together with the variation of a range of soil physico-chemical properties; (2) whether correlations between the distribution of B. pseudomallei and soil physico-chemical properties exist and (3) when they exist, what such correlations indicate with regards to the environmental conditions conducive to the occurrence of B. pseudomallei in soils. Unexpectedly, the highest concentrations of B. pseudomallei were observed between 100 and 200 cm below the soil surface. Our results indicate that unravelling the environmental conditions favorable to B. pseudomallei entails considering many aspects of the actual complexity of soil. Important recommendations regarding environmental sampling for B. pseudomallei can be drawn from this work, in particular that collecting samples down to the water table is of foremost importance, as groundwater persistence appears to be a controlling factor of the occurrence of B. pseudomallei in soil.