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137Cs–A Potential Environmental Marker for Assessing Erosion-Induced Soil Organic Carbon Loss in India


Affiliations
1 ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun 248 195, India
2 Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380 009, India
3 Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Radioactivity, Mangalore University, Mangaluru 574 119, India
4 Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India
 

The use of Cesium-137 (137Cs) as a potential environmental marker was examined for estimating soil erosion induced carbon losses on slopping agricultural land. Depth-wise incremental soil samples were taken from uneroded reference sites and four levels of cultivated slopping lands representing different erosion phase in Doon valley region of India. Comparing the 137Cs inventories for eroded sites with the reference inventory, the erosion rates were computed. The estimated erosion rates were then compared with the actual measured values of erosion at each erosion phase. Since soil erosion preferentially removes the finer soil particles, these results were used to assess erosion induced loss of OC. The result indicated that erosion in different phases relocate 137 kg C ha–1 in slightly eroded plots to 384 kg C ha–1 in severely eroded plots which in turn contributes to 27 to 77 kg C ha–1 the atmosphere as net source of C respectively.

Keywords

137Cs Technology, Soil Erosion, Soil Erosion Induced C-Loss, Soil Conservation, Slopping Agricultural Land.
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  • 137Cs–A Potential Environmental Marker for Assessing Erosion-Induced Soil Organic Carbon Loss in India

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Authors

Debashis Mandal
ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun 248 195, India
Nishita Giri
ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun 248 195, India
Pankaj Srivastava
ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun 248 195, India
Chinmay Shah
Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380 009, India
Ravi Bhushan
Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380 009, India
Karunakara Naregundi
Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Radioactivity, Mangalore University, Mangaluru 574 119, India
M. P. Mohan
Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Radioactivity, Mangalore University, Mangaluru 574 119, India
Manoj Shrivastava
Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India

Abstract


The use of Cesium-137 (137Cs) as a potential environmental marker was examined for estimating soil erosion induced carbon losses on slopping agricultural land. Depth-wise incremental soil samples were taken from uneroded reference sites and four levels of cultivated slopping lands representing different erosion phase in Doon valley region of India. Comparing the 137Cs inventories for eroded sites with the reference inventory, the erosion rates were computed. The estimated erosion rates were then compared with the actual measured values of erosion at each erosion phase. Since soil erosion preferentially removes the finer soil particles, these results were used to assess erosion induced loss of OC. The result indicated that erosion in different phases relocate 137 kg C ha–1 in slightly eroded plots to 384 kg C ha–1 in severely eroded plots which in turn contributes to 27 to 77 kg C ha–1 the atmosphere as net source of C respectively.

Keywords


137Cs Technology, Soil Erosion, Soil Erosion Induced C-Loss, Soil Conservation, Slopping Agricultural Land.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv117%2Fi5%2F865-871