Final report on collaboration agreement between ICARDA and CSIC on sediment tracers

Abstract

The understanding of water erosion processes is essential when predicting the effects of soil conservation structures aimed to disrupt connectivity in runoff and sediment transport across the landscape. Experiments (field and laboratory) measuring the overall effect of these structures and model analysis are usually the techniques used to evaluate their effectiveness. However, the use of sediment tracers is an attractive tool to complement those technologies providing insight into the processes acting within the measured area (Guzmán et al. 2013a). During the last years an erosion tracer methodology based on the application of iron oxides as magnetite, hematite and goethite to tag the top soil profile has been evaluated and validated in several laboratory and field experiments (Guzmán et al., 2010, 2013b, 2015). They have been employed, afterwards, to monitor preferential flows, identify sources of sediments, quantify medium term erosion rates and to map soil redistribution within agricultural fields due to erosion and deposition.