Use of Beryllium‐7 to Document Soil Redistribution following Forest Harvest Operations

Abstract

Rapid and reliable methods for documenting soil erosion associated with forest harvest operations are needed to support the development of best management practices for soil and water conservation. To address this need, the potential for using 7Be measurements to estimate patterns and amounts of soil redistribution associated with individual post-harvest events was explored. The 7Be technique, which was originally developed for use on agricultural land, was employed to estimate soil redistribution associated with a period of heavy rainfall within a harvested forest area located in the Lake Region of Chile (39 degrees 44'7'' S, 73 degrees 10'39'' W; 22% slope; and mean annual rainfall 2300 mm yr(-1)). The results provided by the 7Be technique were validated against direct measurements of soil gain or loss during the same period obtained using erosion pins. The information produced by the two approaches was similar. The results of this study demonstrate the potential for using 7Be measurements to document event-based erosion in recently harvested forest areas.

Doomed to drown? Sediment dynamics in the human-controlled floodplains of the active Bengal Delta

“…It has been used to measure flood deposits on the inner shelf (e.g., Sommerfield et al, 1999), soil redistribution following catchment erosion (e.g., Schuller et al, 2006), and to track monsoon-derived sediment deposition on the abandoned Bengal tidal delta plain (e.g., Rogers et al, 2013). We set 0.2 dpm g -1 as the limit for detectable 7 Be to account for minor atmospheric contributions directly to the fluvial-tidal delta plain.…”

Comparing measurements, ⁷Be radiotracer technique and process-based erosion model for estimating short-term soil loss from cultivated land in Northern Germany

“…Field and laboratory experiments performed since the early 1990s indicate that 7 Be in bare soils as well as in soils covered with vegetation often shows an approximately exponential decrease with depth, with most of the activity found within the upper few millimetres of the soil surface (Walling & Woodward 1992;Wallbrink & Murray 1996;Walling et al 1999;Schuller et al 2006Schuller et al , 2008. An exponential decline of 7 Be with depth indicates equilibrium between deposition and decay.…”

Measurements of the fallout flux of beryllium-7 and its variability in the soil

“…Figure 2 presented the characteristic soil depth profile of beryllium-7 for the analyzed soil type of the studied areas, which showed exponential decay in soil depth, as presented in the literature (Matissoff et al, 2002;Schuller et al, 2006). Figure 2 showed that the beryllium-7 deposited in the soil was whole adsorbed in the first 2 cm of soil, independent of the pluviometric precipitation.…”

“…Some works have demonstrated the potential for using beryllium-7 in tracing of sediment in marine and lacustrine systems and how beryllium-7 could be used to fingerprint sediment derived from superficial sources (Wan et al, 1987;Wallbrink and Murray, 1996;Blake et al, 1999). In South America, only one work carried out in Chile has applied beryllium-7 to study the soil redistribution (Schuller et al, 2006). Schuller et al (2006) employed beryllium-7 to estimate the soil redistribution associated with a period of heavy rainfall within a harvested forest area and showed the applicability of beryllium-7.…”

“…In South America, only one work carried out in Chile has applied beryllium-7 to study the soil redistribution (Schuller et al, 2006). Schuller et al (2006) employed beryllium-7 to estimate the soil redistribution associated with a period of heavy rainfall within a harvested forest area and showed the applicability of beryllium-7. The aim of this work was to assess the fallout flux of beryllium-7 in the soil and its deposition variability in the region of Londrina city, Parana State, Brazil, to apply in soil erosion rates determination in the future.…”