210351

Using Beryllium-7 as a natural radionuclide for assessing short term soil erosion in arid agricultural land, Egypt.

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Last updated: 03 Jan 2025

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Abstract

The use of 7Be as a natural tracer for estimating soil erosion has been demonstrated as a promising tool. Erosion assessment was carried out using 7Be technique at an arid area of Egypt, located 35 km from Cairo upon a rain event of 54mm. The technique estimates soil erosion and deposition due to rainfall event by comparing 7Be activity concentration at a reference site and eroded or depositional sites. Soil samples were collected from three fields with different land uses, uncultivated, prickly pear field (Opuntia) and olives field (Olea europaea). The 7Be in the reference site was observed in the upper 14 mm of soil surface, the reference 7Be inventory value was 124 ±30 Bq.m-2. 7Be inventories of the uncultivated field was lower than the reference inventory and ranged from 59.9 to 122.5 ±30 Bq.m-2. The 7Be inventories in prickly pear field ranged from 89.5 to 296.6 ±30 Bq.m-2 showing erosion at upslope and deposition downslope each field, similar behavior was observed at olives field where 7Be inventories ranged from 73.9 to 263.6 ±30 Bq.m-2. Net soil erosion of 37, 4.1 and 17.9 (t. ha-1) were estimated for uncultivated soil, Prickly pear and olives, respectively. Combining these results with visual observations at the three fields, the main driving force of soil erosion and deposition processes by rain water was the hillslope topography. From the assumptions of applied technique, we can conclude that it gives robust evaluation of soil erosion due to rainfall.

DOI

10.21608/ajnsa.2021.91984.1505

Keywords

Soil erosion, Beryllium-7, Fallout radionuclide, gamma spectrometry

Authors

First Name

Mohamed

Last Name

Kassab

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority, Soils and water department, Nuclear Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.

Email

eng.mohamed.kassab@gmail.com

City

Cairo

Orcid

0000-0002-6184-9150

First Name

Ahmed

Last Name

Hegazi

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Soils and Water Research, Nuclear Research Center, Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority, Cairo, Egypt.

Email

hegazi_1@yahoo.com

City

Cairo

Orcid

-

First Name

Mohamed

Last Name

Salem

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Soils and Water Research, Nuclear Research Center, Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority, Cairo, Egypt.

Email

salem_136@yahoo.com

City

Cairo

Orcid

-

First Name

Moncef

Last Name

Benmansour

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Water and Climate department, Centre National de l’Energie des Sciences et Techniques Nucléaires (CNESTEN), Rabat, Morocco

Email

benmansour64@yahoo.fr

City

Rabat, Morocco

Orcid

-

Volume

55

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

29591

Issue Date

2022-04-01

Receive Date

2021-08-22

Publish Date

2022-04-01

Page Start

94

Page End

103

Print ISSN

1110-0451

Online ISSN

2090-4258

Link

https://ajnsa.journals.ekb.eg/article_210351.html

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https://ajnsa.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=210351

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Original Article

Type Code

455

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Arab Journal of Nuclear Sciences and Applications

Publication Link

https://ajnsa.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Using Beryllium-7 as a natural radionuclide for assessing short term soil erosion in arid agricultural land, Egypt.

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Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023