Multi-parameter fingerprinting of sediment deposition in a small gullied catchment in SE Australia

A. K. Krause, S. W. Franks, J. D. Kalma*, R. J. Loughran, J. S. Rowan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

100 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The determination of relative contributions of potential sediment sources is an important step in the development of management strategies to combat soil erosion. In a 1.2 km2 gullied catchment in southeastern New South Wales, multi-parameter fingerprinting of sediment deposited in successive downstream pools has identified gully walls as the dominant sediment source when the grazed pasture surface was the only other potential source. The median fractional contributions remained relatively steady in the successive downstream pools, with the gully walls responsible for between 90% and 98% of the pool sediment. This result was achieved despite the ratio of the source areas varying considerably between successive nested subareas. Reliability bounds on the predictions, accounting for limited sampling of sources, were well constrained and varied between 5.4% and 13.8%. Downstream of an unsealed road crossing, sediment from the road source dominated the pool sediments such that contributions from the pasture surface and gully sources could not be determined.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)327-348
Number of pages22
JournalCatena
Volume53
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2003
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Fingerprinting
  • Mixing model
  • Sediment sourcing
  • Soil erosion

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