Combining sediment fingerprinting and hydro-sedimentary monitoring to assess suspended sediment provenance in a mid-mountainous Mediterranean catchment

Abstract

Soil erosion and sediment transport are controlled by complex factors promoting variable responses in catchment's erosion rates and sediment yields. To mitigate eventual negative effects derived from altered fluxes, integrated catchment management plans should assess the sediment cascade from upstream erosive processes, sediment mobilization through hillslopes and within the channel, up to downstream sediment yields. This study links hydro-sedimentary dynamics with sediment fingerprinting source ascription in a mid-mountainous Mediterranean catchment during five hydrological years (2013–2018). Soil colour parameters and fallout radionuclides were used as tracers to predict dominant suspended sediment sources using (i) a Bayesian mixing model (MixSIAR) and (ii) an End Member Mixing Analysis (EMMA). MixSIAR suggested that crops were the dominant source in most of the collected samples. EMMA showed similar results, clustering all except one sediment samples close to the crop and channel bank signatures. In addition, a quantitative hysteresis index was calculated and floods were clustered in function of their hydro-sedimentary characteristics. Despite different patterns were associated to each of the four identified clusters (e.g. different sediment loads and maximum suspended sediment concentrations), correlation between sediment origin and hydro-sedimentary variables was not significant due to the little seasonal variation in source type ascription.