ORCID

Abstract

Land degradation resulting from soil erosion is a global concern, with the greatest risk in developing countries where food and land resources can be limited. The use of fallout radionuclides (FRNs) is a proven method for determining short and medium-term rates of soil erosion, to help improve our understanding of soil erosion processes. There has been limited use of these methods in tropical Africa due to the analytical challenges associated with 137Cs, where inventories are an order of magnitude lower than in the Europe. This research aimed to demonstrate the usability of 239+240Pu as a soil erosion tracer in western Kenya compared to conventional isotopes 210Pbex and 137Cs through the determination of FRN depth profiles at reference sites. Across six reference sites 239+240Pu showed the greatest potential, with the lowest coefficient of variation and the greatest peak-to-detection limit ratio of 640 compared to 5 and 1 for 210Pbex and 137Cs respectively. Additionally, 239+240Pu was the only radionuclide to meet the ‘allowable error’ threshold, demonstrating applicability to large scale studies in Western Kenya where the selection of suitable reference sites presents a significant challenge. The depth profile of 239+240Pu followed a polynomial function, with the maximum areal activities found between depths 3 and 12 cm, where thereafter areal activities decreased exponentially. As a result, 239+240Pu is presented as a robust tracer to evaluate soil erosion patterns and amounts in western Kenya, providing a powerful tool to inform and validate mitigation strategies with improved understanding of land degradation.

Publication Date

2024-01-01

Publication Title

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

Volume

271

ISSN

0265-931X

Acceptance Date

2023-10-28

Deposit Date

2023-12-22

Funding

This work is published with the permission of the Executive Director, British Geological Survey. This work has originated from research conducted with the financial support of the following funders: BGS- NERC grant NE/R000069/1 entitled ‘Geoscience for Sustainable Futures’ and BGS Centre for Environmental Geochemistry programmes, the NERC National Capability International Geoscience programme entitled ‘Geoscience to tackle global environmental challenges’ ( NE/X006255/1 ). Additionally financial support from The Royal Society international collaboration awards 2019 grant ICA/R1/191077 entitled ‘Dynamics of environmental geochemistry and health in a lake wide basin’, Natural Environment Research Councils ARIES Doctoral Training Partnership (grant number NE/S007334/1 ) and the British Geological Survey University Funding Initiative ( GA/19S/017 ) was provided, alongside support provided from the British Academy Early Career Researchers Writing Skills Workshop ( WW21100104 ). This work is published with the permission of the Executive Director, British Geological Survey. This work has originated from research conducted with the financial support of the following funders: BGS-NERC grant NE/R000069/1 entitled ‘Geoscience for Sustainable Futures’ and BGS Centre for Environmental Geochemistry programmes, the NERC National Capability International Geoscience programme entitled ‘Geoscience to tackle global environmental challenges’ (NE/X006255/1). Additionally financial support from The Royal Society international collaboration awards 2019 grant ICA/R1/191077 entitled ‘Dynamics of environmental geochemistry and health in a lake wide basin’, Natural Environment Research Councils ARIES Doctoral Training Partnership (grant number NE/S007334/1) and the British Geological Survey University Funding Initiative (GA/19S/017) was provided, alongside support provided from the British Academy Early Career Researchers Writing Skills Workshop (WW21100104).

Keywords

Cs, Fallout radionuclides, Kenya, Pb, Pu, Soil erosion

Download

Share

COinS