Investigating source areas of eroded sediments transported in concentrated overland flow using rare earth element tracers

Rare earth element oxides (REOs) have excellent potential for use as tracers in erosion studies. Using laboratory and field experiments we aimed to develop and test a simple application method for spreading REOs and to use REOs to determine the source of sediment to concentrated overland flow paths.     

稀土元素(REE)示踪土壤侵蚀动态过程的降雨模拟试验研究

该文应用稀土元素(REE)示踪法研究土壤侵蚀发生和发展动态过程的方法,分析了土壤侵蚀沿坡面变化的规律。采用Dy、La、Sm、Yb、Ce、Eu、Nd、Tb等8个REE进行了一系列的人工降雨模拟试验,并采用3个雨强(50,100和150 mm/h)和5个坡度(8.74%,17.63%,36.4%和46.63%),分Ⅰ、Ⅱ2个降雨阶段进行,定量分析了土壤表面雨水动力特征与土壤侵蚀之间的动态平衡过程,揭示了土壤侵蚀发生和发展的过程及土壤侵蚀沿坡面分布的规律,结果表明雨强和坡度越大的条件下,侵蚀率越大的区段越靠近坡的顶端,这与细沟发生的部位完全吻合。     

Potential use of rare earth oxides as tracers of organic matter in grassland

Tracing organic matter (OM) in soil is challenging, because runoff and leaching processes are interrelated and have multiple sources. Therefore, multiple tracers with low background concentrations such as rare earth element oxides (REOs) are necessary to delineate the origin of sources of the organic materials in groundwater, rivers or in catchments. The main objective of this study was to examine the potential use of REOs as a tracer in various forms of OM (1) whole slurry, (2) solid, and (3) liquid phase of cattle slurry after mechanical separation. A laboratory experiment was carried out using five REOs (La, Gd, Sm, Pr, and Nd oxides) mixed directly into soil or mixed with various fractions of cattle slurry and then applied to the soil surface. In the additional grassland experiment, Gd oxide was spiked with soil and cattle slurry and then applied to the soil surface. The mineral N in the liquid phase (urine) of the slurry in the grassland experiment was labelled with ¹⁵N urea (16 atom%). In the laboratory experiment, results showed that the five REOs concentration of soil in 0–1 cm soil section after the rainfall simulation was still up to 20 times more than the background values. In 1–2 cm soil section, the concentration of only Gd (two fold higher) and La oxides (50% higher) were significantly higher than the soil background values. Therefore, we hypothesized that Gd and La oxides were associated also with relatively finer organic particles in slurry, thus 1–2 cm soil section were enriched with these oxides. The five REOs concentration below 2 cm soil depth were similar to the background values in all treatments. In line with the laboratory experiment, Gd concentrations in the deeper soil layers (2–4 and 4–8 cm) in the grassland experiment were not significantly affected by any treatment. Both in grassland and laboratory experiment, solid phase of the slurry (dung) was collected from the soil surface after rainfall simulation. Here, about 56% of REOs were measured on the solid phase of the slurry which indicates the strong binding potential of REOs on slurry OM. The present novel study, where REO tagged slurry was uniquely tested to study geochemical cycle of organic fertilizers, clearly highlighted the potential for their use as multiple‐tracers of (animal derived‐) OM in agricultural soils.