The use of Caesium–137 to Assess Surface Soil Erosion Status in a Water–Supply Catchment in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia

Abstract

In the absence of direct erosion measurements, the soil activity of the fallout radionuclide caesium–137 (137Cs) offers an attractive tool for the estimation of long–term (approximately 45 years) net surface and minor rill soil erosion rates for hillslopes. A transect–based soil sampling technique was applied to one woodland and five grazed pasture hillslopes in the Williams River water–supply catchment in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. An Australian regression model (SOILOSS) relating net soil loss from runoff–erosion plots to 137Cs deficit in soils was used to calculate a weighted net surface and minor rill erosion rate for the six hillslopes. The net median surface erosion rates ranged between 0.00 and 0.64 t ha–1yr–1with the average median soil erosion rate of 0.19 t ha–1 yr–1(std. dev. = 0.23), indicating that these hillslopes were unlikely to be major sources of sediment to the catchment's waterways. Net soil loss rates were also shown to be low in comparison to Australia–wide data and comparable to hillslope data obtained elsewhere in the same region. Minimum and maximum error bounds were provided with each erosion rate to account for radionuclide detector count error. For one hillslope the estimated error due to detection was 1.34 t ha–1yr–1, while the remaining five hillslopes exhibited error of up to 0.41 t ha–1yr–1. Correlation analyses between the net soil loss rates and physical hillslope characteristics were non–significant.