Water and Energy Abstracts
  • Year: 2005
  • Volume: 15
  • Issue: 2

32. Using Cs-137 Measurements and Reservoir Deposits to Investigate the Effects of Ceasing Cultivation in Sediment Yields and Sediment Sources in a Small Catchment on the Loess Plateau of China

  • Author:
  • Xinbao Zhang, Mingyi Feng, Anbang Wen
  • Total Page Count: 2
  • Page Number: 13 to 14

(Sediment Transfer through the Fluvial System – Proceedings of a Symposium held in Moscow, August 2004 – IAHS Publication 288, 2004, pp. 67–74).

Abstract

The impact of ceasing cultivation on specific sediment yields and relative sediment contributions from the gully and inter-gully areas within a small catchment in the Rolling Loess Plateau of China has been examined by comparing the volume and 137Cs content of sediments deposited in a reservoir before and after 1993. It is suggested that compaction of the formerly ploughed soils caused their erosion resistance to increase but reduced infiltration rates. Rates of soil loss from the inter gully areas therefore decreased but runoff increased. Increased runoff caused increased erosional activity within the receiving gully areas and an increase in the total sediment yield from the catchment.

Keywords

Ceasing cultivation, China, 137Cs measurements, Reservoir deposits, Rolling Loess Plateau, Sediment sources, Specific sediment yield