Floodplain sedimentation rates in an alpine watershed determined by radionuclide techniques

Vertical profiles of the activities of ¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb were measured on floodplain sediment cores and upland soil cores along the Soda Butte Creek and the Yellowstone River to determine floodplain sedimentation rates. The position of mine tailings from a 1950 impoundment failure was used as a stratigraphic marker to estimate the sedimentation rates and to make comparisons with rates provided by radionuclide‐based methods. Mass accumulation (sedimentation) rates calculated from the position of the mine tailings ranged from 0·00 to 0·17 g cm^?2 yr^?1 and were in good agreement with sedimentation rates calculated from the inventories of ¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb. Sedimentation rates calculated from the position of the ¹³⁷Cs peak generally overestimated the sedimentation rates, probably because of increased downward migration of ¹³⁷Cs caused by the low pH of water moving through the mine tailings or the high permeability of floodplain sediments relative to upland reference soils. This study demonstrates that the ¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb inventory methods for determining sedimentation rates can be applied to an alpine floodplain where sedimentation events are episodic and where orographic effects on precipitation generate strong downstream gradients in the delivery of atmospheric radionuclides. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modern sedimentation rates in the intertidal zone on the west coast of the Bohai Gulf

On the basis of the measurement of ^210Pbcx and ^137Cs activities in the sediment cores taken from the intertidal zone on the west coast of the Bohai Gulf, the average sedimentation rates of modern sediments are calculated. The results indicate that in the sandy area of the intertidal zone (from Daogouzi to the Duliujian River), the sedimentation rate from 1955 to 1963 is 3.43～4.06 cm/a, and is within the range of 0.65～1.59 cm/a since 1963. The average sedimentation rate in the muddy area (around Qikou) is approximately 1.81 cm/a.The results above suggest that the sandy area of the intertidal zone has experienced rapid sedimentation from the 1950s to the 1960s,and the sedimentation slows down after the 1960s, and the sedimentation rates increase from north to south spatially. The rapid sedimentation from the 1950s to the 1960s in the sandy area is due to the fact that North China has plentiful precipitation during this period and the intertidal zone is supplied with abundant matter sources for sedimentation. After the 1960s, the weakened sedimentation may be a result of the reduction of sand transported to the intertidal zone, which is a consequence of diminished rainfall in North China and intensive human activities in the Haihe basin.     

Determination of 137Cs reference inventories in a large-scale region: A case study in the central-eastern Inner Mongolia Plateau

In isotope 137 Cs tracing studies, it is a premise to determine suitable 137 Cs reference inventory（CRI） plots and the CRI values. Owing to the heterogeneous spatial distribution of 137 Cs deposition in the ground and diverse, or even irregular, operations in sampling and testing procedures, CRI determination is usually faced with many difficulties and uncertainties. In addition, more difficulties occur in an investigation of a large-scale region because of time constraints and measurement cost limitations. In this study, traditional CRI acquiring methods were summarized first, and then a new complex scheme was established, involving seven core steps and coupling the model estimate and sample measurement. The above CRI determination methodology was implemented in the central-eastern Inner Mongolia Plateau. The case study results showed that the CRI in the dark chestnut soil sub-region, located in the east and south of Xing＇an City, exhibited 2447 Bq·m–2; the CRI in the aeolian sandy soil sub-region, positioned in the south central Tongliao City and central Chifeng City, showed 2430 Bq·m–2; the CRI in the sandy chernozem soil sub-region, situated in the northwestern Chifeng City, presented 2384 Bq·m–2; and the CRI in the chestnut soil sub-region, in the southern Xilin Gol City, was 2368 Bq·m–2. The newly proposed CRI determination scheme was proved effective, and the determined CRI plots and CRI values were convincing. The methodology offered a framework for 137 Cs tracing studies in large-scale regions or long-distance transects.     

A comparison of measured 137Cs and excess 210Pb levels in the cultivated brown and cinnamon soils of the Yimeng Mountain area

This contribution analyzes the similarities and differences between the measured activities of 137Cs and excess 210pb （210Pbex） in the cultivated brown and cinnamon soils of the Yimeng Mountain area, discusses the influ- ence of soil texture on the measurement of 210Pbex, and presents differences between the two types of soils. Fields A and B were selected to represent the fields that contain cultivated brown and cinnamon soils, respectively. From either study field, one site of sectioned core and six bulk cores were collected to measure 137Cs levels, 210Pbex levels, and the particle-size composition of soil samples. Three undisturbed soil samples were collected to measure capillary and aeration porosities. The 137Cs inventories for the two study fields are very similar. The 137Cs is a man-made ra- dionuclide, which means that its measured levels for soils are unaffected by soil texture. In contrast, levels of the naturally occurring 210Pbex of soils from Field A were lower than those of Field B by about 50%. In contrast to aquatic sediments, levels of 210Pbex in terrestrial surface soils are affected by the emanation of 222Rn from the soils. It can be assumed that the coarser the soils, the greater the emanation of 222Rn; in addition, the lower the measured 210pbex, the greater the underestimate of this value. The cultivated brown soils in Field A are coarser than the culti- vated cinnamon soils in Field B. As a result, 222Rn in Field A will diffuse more easily into the atmosphere than that in Field B. As a consequence, the measured 210pbex in soils from Field A is much lower than the actual value, whereas the value measured for Field B is much closer to the actual value.     

福岛第一核电站事故及核污水排海进入中国海路径及其影响

自2011年3月日本福岛第一核电站事故发生以来,其对中国海的影响一直备受国内高度关注。基于近10年的研究成果,本文综述了福岛第一核电站事故释放的放射性核素进入中国海的海洋传输路径主要为表层环流和模态水(亚热带模态水和中央模态水),经表层环流和模态水到达中国海的时间尺度分别在10—15年和2—3年之间。对比分析福岛第一核电站事故前后可知:南海¹³⁷Cs活度持平,黄海¹³⁷Cs活度稍有降低,但东海¹³⁷Cs活度有所升高。鉴于目前有限的监测站位和短期的观测时间,福岛第一核电站事故对中国海的影响程度大小还有待于长期监测和进一步的评估。同时针对日本政府宣布福岛第一核电站核污水排海计划,分析了其潜在的风险和指出了未来的研究方向。     

Caesium-137 in Southeast Asia: Is there enough left for soil erosion and sediment redistribution studies?

Low reference inventories of the fallout radionuclide ¹³⁷Cs in low latitudes may limit its present and future application for studies of soil erosion and sediment redistribution in Southeast Asia. ¹³⁷Cs reference inventories and concentrations in surface materials measured in nine and five areas, respectively, across Southeast Asia are here reported and reviewed. The compiled reference inventories decrease from north to south. Three global estimates of ¹³⁷Cs total fallout are also reviewed and compared to the measured data while taking into account factors that affect the fallout estimates and the reference inventory. The results are presented as a schematic regional distribution map of ¹³⁷Cs reference inventories for the year 2012. A relationship between a reference inventory and topsoil concentration is also provided. The measured ¹³⁷Cs concentrations suggest that a minimum detectable activity (MDA) less than 0.5 Bq/kg is required for detection of ¹³⁷Cs activity in topsoils in the lowest reference inventory areas. This sensitivity should allow, at present, ¹³⁷Cs to be a useful tool for analysis of soil erosion in Southeast Asia, should also be a useful chronometer, and will be a useful tracer at least where the reference inventory is more than 500–600 Bq/m². This level of MDA has been demonstrated in previous studies to be achievable by gamma-ray spectrometry using non-destructive sample treatment. As the nuclide decays, sufficient will remain to be useful until the middle of this century in most areas in Peninsular Malaysia and southern maritime Southeast Asia, and a few decades more in the rest of the region.     

Post‐deposition diffusion of 137Cs in lake sediment: Implications for radiocaesium dating

Peak activities of radiocaesium (¹³⁷Cs) in lake sediments have frequently been used to infer the ages of sediments deposited in the 1960s (¹³⁷Cs derived from nuclear bomb testing) or in 1986 (Chernobyl derived ¹³⁷Cs). Records of the vertical distribution of ¹³⁷Cs in sediments can thus be used to provide accurate dates for a critical period in which palaeoecological reconstructions often overlap contemporary monitoring data. However, knowledge regarding how the distribution of ¹³⁷Cs in sediments is affected by post‐depositional processes is limited to interpretations based on the ¹³⁷Cs distribution in sediments sampled at a single given date. This study assesses the extent to which the ¹³⁷Cs record in annually laminated (varved) lake sediments is affected by post‐depositional diffusion, using 11 archived sediment cores sampled between 1986 and 2007. The sediment record reveals how Chernobyl ¹³⁷Cs incorporated into the 1986 varve diffused downwards in the core at a decreasing rate over time, whereas the surface sediments continued to receive inputs of ¹³⁷Cs mobilized from the catchment soils or lake margin. In spite of these processes, all cores post‐dating the Chernobyl accident had a clear and well‐resolved peak in the 1986 varve, justifying the use of this feature as a fixed chronostratigraphic feature. Because of the very high levels of Chernobyl fallout at this site, downwards migration of Chernobyl ¹³⁷Cs has, however, completely masked the nuclear weapons ¹³⁷Cs fallout peak that had been clearly preserved in the 1964 varve of a pre‐Chernobyl core sampled just three weeks before the Chernobyl accident. In consequence, the weapons fallout marker is likely to be of little use for determining ¹³⁷Cs dates in areas strongly affected by high levels of Chernobyl fallout.     

137Cs and 210Pbex as soil erosion tracers in the hilly Sichuan Basin and the Three Gorges area of China

Accelerated soil erosion and land degradation represent major environmental problems for agricultural lands.Reliable information on the rates of soil loss is urgently needed.The traditional techniques for documenting rates of soil loss may meet this need,but face many limitations.The fallout radionuclides,especially 137 Cs and 210 Pb ex,are increasingly used as effective tracers to quantify soil erosion rates,and they represent a valuable complement to the existing classical methods.This paper aims to introduce the basis for assessing soil erosion rates on cultivated and uncultivated slopes by using 137 Cs and 210 Pb ex measurements,to compare the 137 Cs and 210 Pb ex reference inventories,and to report several case studies undertaken in the hilly area of Sichuan Basin and the Three Gorges area of China.     

借助137Cs估算滇池沉积量

The water quality of Dianchi Lake declines quickly and the eutrophication is getting serious. To identify the internal pollution load of Dianchi Lake it is necessary to evaluate its sediment accumulation. Sedimentation rates of Dianchi Lake are determined by 137Cs dating. However, 137Cs vertical distribution in sediment cores of Dianchi Lake has special character-istics because Dianchi Lake is located on the southeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Kunming quasi-stationary front is over the borders of Yunnan and Guizhou where the specific precipitation is distributed. Besides 1954, 1963 and 1986 137Cs marks can be determined in sediment cores, a 137Cs mark of 1976 representing the major period of 137Cs released from China unclear test can be determined and used for an auxiliary dating mark. Meanwhile Di-anchi Lake is divided into seven sections based on the water depth, basin topography, hy-drological features and supplies of silt and the lakebed area of each section is calculated. The mean annual sedimentation rates for seven sections are 0.0810, 0.1352, 0.1457, 0.1333, 0.0904, 0.1267 and 0.1023 g/cm2 a in 1963-2003, respectively. The gross sediment accu-mulation of the lake is 26.18×104 t/a in recent 17 years and 39.86×104 t/a in recent 50 years.     

Using remote-sensing technologies in combination with Cesium-137 measurements to estimate soil-erosion quantity in semi-arid steppe areas

Soil erosion by wind is one of the most important processes in the changing the earth’s surface in semi-arid areas,Thus it is of great importance to study soil-erosion action.Using integrated technologies of remote sensing and geochemistry radioactivity iso-tope to extract regional soil-erosion information and to calculate quantity of soil erosion is accomplished successfully in this paper by means of beneficial experiments in the Talatan region of the Gonghe Basin,which is located in northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Pla-teau in China.The results show that the soil erosion by wind is not intensive in this region;the erosion types belong to the classes of very-soft erosion and soft-erosion type,which account for 47.12 percent and 35.58 percent,respectively,of the total study area.In total,two kinds of soil erosion account for 82.70 percent of the study area;only a small area belongs to the classes of severe erosion and very-severe erosion;this area is about 22.14 km2.Severe deposition activity has taken place in this region,and has appeared in a large area(322.67 km2),which accounts for 11.78 percent of the total study area.The results of this study show that soil erosion and deposition inventories are 870,000-1,150,000 tons and 550,000-780,000 tons,respectively,per year.The soil in-ventory shows about 320,000-370,000 tons from Talatan to Longyangxia reservoir per year.Using remote-sensing technology and 137Cs techniques is a valid means to analyze and to evaluate the quantity of soil erosion by wind in semi-arid environments.