Use of Caesium-137 technique for the assessment of soil erosion in two selected sites in Uma Oya Catchment in Sri Lanka

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Dissanayake, C. Kalpani Mahawatte, P. Abeynayake, K. Weerasekera, T. S. B. Gilkes, Robert J. Prakongkep, Nattaporn
Copyright Year	2010
Abstract	The 137 Cs technique for investigating rates and patterns of soil erosion has now been successfully applied in a wide range of environments. 137 Cs is a product of atmospheric nuclear testing, which commenced in the 1950s. 137 Cs strongly adheres to soil particles and therefore can be used as a tracer in soil movement studies. Soil erosion rates in two different land use types with no soil conservation methods common in the Uma Oya catchment located in the up country of Sri Lanka have been investigated using the 137 Cs technique. The soils in these sites were Humults, locally referred to as red-yellow podzoilc soils. The 137 Cs content in soil was measured using core samples obtained up to a depth of 35 cm. The mean reference inventory was 753 Bq/m 2 and showed exponential decline with depth. The mean 137 Cs inventory in the two study sites were 290 and 491 Bq/m 2 . This corresponded to an average soil loss rate of 44 t/ha/yr and 24 t/ha/yr, respectively. These results were comparable to erosion data obtained using the conventional methods. T his method is very effective in finding the range of soil erosion rates at different areas and different land uses for proposed developmental projects so that steps could be taken by the policy makers for prevention of soil degradation.
Starting Page	165
Ending Page	168
Page Count	4
File Format	PDF HTM / HTML
Alternate Webpage(s)	http://www.iuss.org/19th%20WCSS/Symposium/pdf/0163.pdf
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article