Investigating soil erosion using cesium-137 tracer under two different cultivated lands in El Kbir watershed, Tunisia

Investigating soil erosion using cesium-137 tracer under two different cultivated lands in El Kbir watershed, Tunisia

Soil erosion caused by rain and runoff is a global issue that keeps getting worse over time. Damage caused by this phenomenon includes accelerated silting of dams. Considering that the storage capacity of major hydraulic structures gradually degrades owing to cumulative sedimentation, Tunisia faces...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Euro-Mediterranean journal for environmental integration Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 783 - 796
Main Authors: Gdiri, Amira, Ben Cheikha, Lilia, Oueslati, Mansour, Saiidi, Salwa, Reguigui, Nafaa
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-06-2024
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Agricultural production
Agriculture
Aquatic Pollution
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Cereal crops
Cesium
Cesium 137
Cesium radioisotopes
Crops
Cultivated lands
Cultivation
Dams
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Environmental Chemistry
Environmental impact
Environmental Management
Environmental Science and Engineering
Erosion rates
Fruit trees
Grain cultivation
Hydraulic structures
Hydraulics
Land degradation
Land use
Mass balance
Original Paper
Precipitation
Radioisotopes
Reservoir capacity
Rural development
Sedimentation
Silting
Soil erosion
Soil fertility
Soil investigations
Storage capacity
Trees
Vegetation
Vegetation cover
Waste Management/Waste Technology
Waste Water Technology
Water Management
Water Pollution Control
Water resources
Watersheds
Tunisia
Cesium-137
Soil erosion
Land cover
Tunisia
Conversion models MBM2
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Summary:Soil erosion caused by rain and runoff is a global issue that keeps getting worse over time. Damage caused by this phenomenon includes accelerated silting of dams. Considering that the storage capacity of major hydraulic structures gradually degrades owing to cumulative sedimentation, Tunisia faces severe environmental threats due to the annual decrease in reservoir capacity. Plant cover and land use are the most significant factors influencing the severity of soil erosion. In this vein, this study investigated the effect of soil cover on erosion at two agricultural sites in the El Kbir watershed, north Tunisia, using the cesium-137 (Cs-137) radioisotope tracer method. This radioactive element has been successfully used for investigating rates and patterns of soil erosion. The cesium-137 inventory obtained for the reference site is about 1341 Bq m −2 . For study plots cultivated with olive trees and cereal crops, Cs-137 inventories are about 1036.37 Bq m −2 and 426.82 Bq m −2 , respectively. The results show that the net erosion rate estimated by the mass balance model 2 (MBM2) was significantly higher in the cereal cultivated plot with 28.95 t ha −1  year −1 than in the olive cultivated plot with 7.16 t ha −1  year −1 . The difference in net erosion rates between the two fields reveals the crucial role of the soil cover, as olive trees showed better resistance to erosive effects because of their system of roots. In contrast, culture of cereal crops, which occupy around 50% of the total area in the region, does not effectively protect and maintain the soil against erosion, which in turn induces intensive erosion of soil, resulting in sedimentation in dams. Soil erosion can therefore be reduced by adapting land use and increasing adequate vegetation cover. Graphical abstract
ISSN:2365-6433
2365-7448
DOI:10.1007/s41207-024-00497-0