Rare earth element oxides for tracing sediment movement

The development of soil conservation plans and evaluation of spatially distributed erosion models require knowledge of rates of soil loss and sedimentation on different landscape elements and slope positions. Characterization of soil erosion rates and patterns within watersheds is important for the understanding of erosion processes and landscape evolution. Experimental data that show spatial translocation of soil on slopes are limited. A method for obtaining spatially distributed information on sediment movement employing rare earth element (REE) oxides is proposed. Five REE oxides in powder form were uniformly mixed with the soil on different parts of a 10% slope in a 4x4 m soil bed. Particle translocation was measured during eight simulated rainfalls at 60 mm h(-1) intensity. A laser scanner was utilized to obtain digital elevation models (DEMs) of the soil surface that were used as the reference data to compare with the tracer method. REE concentration in soil and runoff samples was detennined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Erosion rates for different slope positions estimated from REE concentrations correlated with those calculated from the DEMs with relative differences for different slope sections of 4-40%. The enrichment ratio for this type of tracer was 1.7. The amount of sediment produced on different parts of the slope varied, with the greatest erosion occurring on the upper-middle part of the slope. The experiment showed that the multi-element tracer method provided a satisfactory way to study soil erosion distribution on a uniform slope. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.