Abstract
The growing awareness of the environmental significance of fine-grained sediment fluxes through catchment systems continues to underscore the need for reliable information on the principal sources of this material. Source estimates are difficult to obtain using traditional monitoring techniques, but sediment source fingerprinting or tracing procedures, have emerged as a potentially valuable alternative. Despite the rapidly increasing numbers of studies reporting the use of sediment source fingerprinting, several key challenges and uncertainties continue to hamper consensus among the international scientific community on key components of the existing methodological procedures. Accordingly, this contribution reviews and presents recent developments for several key aspects of fingerprinting, namely: sediment source classification, catchment source and target sediment sampling, tracer selection, grain size issues, tracer conservatism, source apportionment modelling, and assessment of source predictions using artificial mixtures. Finally, a decision-tree representing the current state of knowledge is presented, to guide end-users in applying the fingerprinting approach.
Highlights
Introduction to sediment source fingerprintingReliable quantitative information on fine-grained sediment sources in river catchments is required to help target remedial actions for mitigating the impacts of excessive fine sediment loss on aquatic biology (Kemp et al, 2011; Jones et al, 2012)
Title: Sediment source fingerprinting as an aid to catchment management: a review of the current state of knowledge and a methodological decisiontree for endusers Creators: Collins, A
J. (2016) Sediment source fingerprinting as an aid to catchment management: a review of the current state of knowledge and a methodological decisiontree for endusers
Summary
Reliable quantitative information on fine-grained sediment sources in river catchments is required to help target remedial actions for mitigating the impacts of excessive fine sediment loss on aquatic biology (Kemp et al, 2011; Jones et al, 2012). The paper culminates in the presentation of a new decision-tree designed to guide endusers through a series of critical decisions needed to apply the fingerprinting approach to apportion fine-grained sediment sources in river catchments This decision-tree builds on earlier versions of methodological flow charts including those presented in Lees (1999), Foster and Lees (2000), Walling and Collins (2000), Collins and Walling (2004), and Walling et al (2003a, 2006), and critically, captures both historical and recent research experiences and lessons
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