title: Regional calibration of erosion radiotracers (210Pb and 137Cs): atmospheric fluxes to soils (northern Spain).
abstract: Inventories of radionuclides commonly used to study environmental processes, especially in erosion research, were determined in soil cores from two distant river basins in northern Spain. Results showed that 210Pb atmospheric fluxes correlate very well with mean annual rainfall across the region, and this is also the case for 137Cs inventories but only on the basin scale. Therefore we suggest that 210Pb is a better candidate as a radiotracer for soil erosion studies. In this region, the equation 210Pb flux (Bq m(-2) yr(-1)) = (0.19 +/- 0.02) x rainfall (mm yr(-1)) - (24 +/- 17) can be used as a calibration to estimate input 210Pb fluxes, a key parameter in soil erosion studies and models, when mean annual rainfall is known.
authors.affiliation: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. j.a.sanchez@iaea.org
authors.forename: Joan-Albert
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Sanchez-Cabeza
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garcia-Talavera
authors.forename: Eduard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Peña
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Garcia-Orellana
authors.forename: Pere
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Masqué
authors.forename: Constantino
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nalda
mesh_terms: D002588:Cesium Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D007856:Lead Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis*; D011891:Rain; D012987:Soil / Q000032:analysis*; D013030:Spain
chemical_list: D002588:Cesium Radioisotopes; D007856:Lead Radioisotopes; D012987:Soil