Abstract
137Cs has been utilised extensively to investigate catchment sediment dynamics. Its activity can be indicative of sediment derived from surface sources, and its inventory in deposited sediments reflects local fallout, radioactive decay, sediment accumulation and sediment source. Lakes represent ideal depositional environments for the reconstruction of historical sediment dynamics. In the UK, depth profiles and inventories of 137Cs in lake cores have been investigated in a large number of catchments, but no study has synthesised all of these data to identify national spatial trends. The aim of this study was therefore to determine what can be learnt from 137Cs inventories and profiles from UK lakes. Analysis revealed that local reference fallout, the rate of linear sediment accumulation (cm year−1) and the lake area:catchment area ratio, are the most important factors that control lake 137Cs inventories. Delivery of mobile 137Cs to the lake shortly after fallout, dissolved in runoff, or associated with mobilised sediment in transit from the source to the lake, is also likely a major control on inventories, especially on down-core profiles and peak activities. It is possible that dissolved 137Cs inputs remain important controls on activities in recently deposited sediments, as they are often higher than potential contributing catchment sediment sources. It is also likely that finer particle-size distributions in lake-bed sediments, compared with source materials, increase both activities and inventories. Uncertainties are associated with patterns of sediment deposition on the lake bed and the estimation of local reference fallout, and lakes with low catchment-derived 137Cs inputs potentially have a comparable or lower inventory than calculated from the estimated reference fallout. Lakes with multiple inlet tributaries and poor mixing of inflows, or an irregular bed shape divided by ridges and depressions, are also likely to display considerable variability in sediment-associated 137Cs deposition. Despite these uncertainties, 137Cs depth profiles provide valuable information on sediment sources and dynamics when interpreted carefully in the context of other UK lakes, and in relation to the corresponding catchment and lake characteristics. Several distinctive down-core profiles and inventories reported here yielded valuable insights into catchment sediment dynamics.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen SE (1986) Radiation: a guide to a contaminated countryside. Guardian 17
Appleby PG, Richardson N, Nolan PJ, Oldfield F (1990) Radiometric dating of the United Kingdom SWAP sites. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 327:233–238
Bennion H, Appleby P (1999) An assessment of recent environmental change in Llangorse Lake using palaeolimnology. Aquat Conserv 9:361–375
Bertha EL, Choppin GR (1984) Interactions of humic and fulvic acids with Eu(II1) and Am(II1). Radiochim Acta 35:143–147
Boardman J, Shepheard ML, Walker E, Foster IDL (2009) Soil erosion and risk assessment for on- and off-farm impacts: a test case using the Midhurst area, West Sussex, UK. J Environ Manag 90:2578–2588
Bol’shiyanov DY, Bakunov NA, Makarov AS (2016) On 137Cs migration in water systems of Eastern Fennoscandia. Water Res 43:533–538. https://doi.org/10.1134/s0097807816030039
Bunzl K, Kracke W, Schimmack W (1995) Migration of fallout 239+240Pu, 241Am and 137Cs in the various horizons of a forest soil under pine. J Environ Radioact 28:17–34
Bunzl K, Jacob P, Schimmack W, Alexakhin RM, Arkhipov NP, Ivanov Y, Kruglov SV (1997) 137Cs mobility in soils and its long-term effect on the external radiation exposure. Radiat Environ Biophys 36:31–37
Cambray RS, Playford K, Carpenter RC (1989) Radioactive fallout in air and rain: results to the end of 1988. UK Atomic Energy Authority Report AERE-R 13575. HMSO: London
Camplin WC, Leonard DRP, Tipple JR, Duckett L (1989) Radioactivity in freshwater systems in Cumbria (UK) following the Chernobyl accident. Fisheries Research Data Report No 18. Fisheries Laboratory, Lowestoft
Choppin GR (1988) Humics and radionuclide migration. Radiochim Acta 44(45):23–28
Collins AL, Walling DE, Leeks GJL (1997) Source type ascription for fluvial suspended sediment based on a quantitative composite fingerprinting technique. CATENA 29:1–27
Dalgleish HY, Foster IDL (1996) Cs-137 losses from a loamy surface water gleyed soil (Inceptisol); a laboratory simulation experiment. CATENA 26:227–245
Davis JJ (1963) Cesium and its relationship to potassium in ecology. In: Schultz V, Klement AW Jr (eds) Radioecology. Reinhold, New York, pp 539–556
Dearing JA (1992) Sediment yields and sources in a welsh upland lake-catchment during the past 800 years. Earth Surf Process Landf 17:1–22. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.3290170102
Dearing JA, Foster IDL (1993) Lake sediments and geomorphological processes; some thoughts. In: McManus J, Duck R (eds) The geomorphology and sedimentology of lakes and reservoirs. Wiley, Chichester, pp 5–14
Devereux OH, Prestegaard KL, Needelman BA, Gellis AC (2010) Suspended-sediment sources in an urban watershed, Northeast Branch Anacostia River, Maryland. Hydrol Process 24:1391–1403
Dillon PJ, Evans R, Molot LA (1990) Retention and resuspension of phosphorus, nitrogen and iron in a central Ontario lake. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 47:1269–1274
Du P, Walling DE (2012) Using 210Pb measurements to estimate sedimentation rates on river floodplains. J Environ Radioact 103:59–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2011.08.006
Evans RD (1994) Empirical evidence of the importance of sediment resuspension in lakes. Hydrobiologia 284:5–12
Evans RD, Rigler FH (1980) Measurement of whole lake sediment accumulation and phosphorus retention using lead-210 dating. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 37:817–822
Evans R, Collins AL, Foster IDL, Rickson J, Anthony SG, Brewer T, Deeks L, Newell-Price JP, Truckell IG, Zhang Y (2015) Extent, frequency and rate of water erosion of arable land in Britain—benefits and challenges for modelling. Soil Use Manag 32(S1):149–161. https://doi.org/10.1111/sum.12210
Evans J, Foster I, Boardmand J, Holmes N (2017) SMART—sediment mitigation actions for the river rother, UK. Proc IAHS 94:1–5. https://doi.org/10.5194/piahs-94-1-2017
Flower RJ (1991) Field calibration and performance of sediment traps in a eutrophic holomictic lake. J Paleolimnol 5:175–188
Foster IDL, Lees JA (1999a) Changes in the physical and geochemical properties of suspended sediment delivered to the headwaters of LOIS river basins over the last 100 years: a preliminary analysis of lake and reservoir bottom sediments. Hydrol Process 13:1067–1086. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1085(199905)13:7%3C1067:AID-HYP790%3E3.0.CO;2-Y
Foster IDL, Lees JA (1999b) Changing headwater suspended sediment yields in the LOIS catchments over the last century: a palaeolimnological approach. Hydrol Process 13:1137–1153
Foster IDL, Walling DE (1994) Using reservoir deposits to reconstruct changing sediment yields and sources in the catchment of the Old Mill Reservoir, South Devon, UK, over the past 50 years. Hydrol Sci 39:347–368
Foster IDL, Dearing JA, Simpson A, Carter AD, Appleby PG (1985) Lake catchment based studies of erosion and denudation in the Merevale catchment, Warwickshire, UK. Earth Surf Proc Land 10:45–68. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.3290100108
Foster IDL, Dearing JA, Appleby PG (1986) Historical trends in catchment sediment yields: a case study in reconstruction from lake-sediment records in Warwickshire, UK. Hydrolog Sci J 31:427–443. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626668609491058
Foster IDL, Grew R, Dearing JA (1990) Magnitude and frequency of sediment transport in agricultural catchments: a paired lake-catchment study in Midland England. In: Boardman J, Foster IDL, Dearing JA (eds) Soil erosion on agricultural land. Wiley, Chichester, pp 153–171
Foster IDL, Chapman AS, Hodgkinson RM, Jones AR, Lees JA, Turner SE, Scott M (2003) Changing suspended sediment and particulate phosphorus loads and pathways in underdrained lowland agricultural catchments, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, UK. Hydrobiologia 494:119–126. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3366-3_17
Foster IDL, Mighall TM, Proffitt H, Walling DE, Owens PN (2006) Post-Depositional 137Cs mobility in the sediments of three shallow coastal lagoons, SW England. J Paleolimnol 35:881–895. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-005-6187-6
Foster IDL, Collins AL, Naden PS, Sear DA, Jones JI, Zhang Y (2011) The potential for paleolimnology to determine historic sediment delivery to rivers. J Paleolimnol 45:287. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-011-9498-9
Gruszowski KE, Foster IDL, Lees JA, Charlesworth SM (2003) Sediment sources and transport pathways in a rural catchment, Herefordshire, UK. Hydrol Process 17:2665–2681
Håkanson L, Jansson M (1983) Principles of lake sedimentology. Springer, Berlin
He Q, Walling DE (1996) Interpreting particle size effects in the adsorption of 137Cs and unsupported 210Pb by mineral soils and sediments. J Environ Radioact 30:117–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/0265-931X(96)89275-7
He Q, Walling DE, Owens P (1996) Interpreting the 137Cs profiles observed in several small lakes and reservoirs in southern England. Chem Geol 129:115–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/0009-2541(95)00149-2
Heit M, Miller KM, Krey P, Bogen D, Feely H (1984) Other radionuclides: plutonium with some comments about 137CS chronologies in freshwater sediments. In: Workshop on paleolimnological studies of the history and effects of acidic precipitation, Rockland, ME, 23–25 May. USEPA, Washington DC, pp 34–77
Klaminder J, Appleby P, Crook P, Renberg I (2012) Post-deposition diffusion of 137Cs in lake sediment: implications for radiocaesium dating. Sedimentology 59:2259–2267
Konert M, Vandenberghe JEF (1997) Comparison of laser grain size analysis with pipette and sieve analysis: a solution for the underestimation of the clay fraction. Sedimentology 44:523–535. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3091.1997.d01-38.x
Lees JA (1997) Mineral magnetic properties of mixtures of environmental and synthetic materials: linear additivity and interaction effects. Geophys J Int 131:335–346
Livens FR, Baxter MS (1988) Chemical associations of artificial radionuclides in Cumbrian soils. J Environ Radioact 9:75–86
Livens FR, Howe MT, Hemingway JD, Goulding KWT, Howard BJ (1996) Forms and rates of release of 137Cs in two peat soils. Eur J Soil Sci 47:105–122
Lomenick TF, Tamura T (1965) Naturally occurring fixation of cesium-137 on sediments of lacustrine origin. Soil Sci Soc Am Proc 29:383–386
Longmore ME (1982) The Cesium dating technique and associated applications in Australia. In: Ambrose W, Duerden P (eds) Archaeometry: an Australian perspective. ANU Press, Canberra, pp 310–321
Menzel RG (1974) Land surface erosion and rainfall as sources of strontium-90 in streams. J Environ Qual 3:219–223
Met Office (2017) UK climate, rainfall—annual average: 1961–1990. www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/climate. Accessed 22 Aug 2017
Mizugaki S, Onda Y, Fukuyama T, Koga S, Asai H, Hiramatsu S (2008) Estimation of suspended sediment sources using 137Cs and 210Pbex in unmanaged Japanese cypress plantation watersheds in southern Japan. Hydrol Process 22:4519–4531
Motha JA, Wallbrink PJ, Hairsine PB, Grayson RB (2004) Unsealed roads as suspended sediment sources in an agricultural catchment in south-eastern Australia. J Hydrol 286:1–18
Olley J, Burton J, Smolders K, Pantus F, Pietsch T (2012) The application of fallout radionuclides to determine the dominant erosion process in water supply catchments of subtropical South-east Queensland, Australia. Hydrol Process 27:885–895. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.9422
Olsen CR, Simpson HJ, Peng TH, Bopp RF, Trier RM (1981) Sediment mixing and accumulation rate effects on radionuclide depth profiles in Hudson estuary sediments. J Geophys Res 86:11020–11028. https://doi.org/10.1029/JC086iC11p11020
Owens PN, Walling DE, He Q, Shanahan J, Foster IDL (1997) The use of caesium-137 measurements to establish a sediment budget for the Start catchment, Devon, UK. Hydrol Sci J 42:405–423
Owens P, Walling DE, Leeks GJL (1999) Use of floodplain sediment cores to investigate recent historical changes in overbank sedimentation rates and sediment sources in the catchment of the River Ouse, Yorkshire, UK. CATENA 36:21–47
Pennington W, Cambray RS, Eakins JD, Harkness DD (1976) Radionuclide dating of the recent sediments of Blelham Tarn. Freshw Biol 6:317–331. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2427.1976.tb01617.x
Pittam NJ, Foster IDL, Mighall T (2009) An integrated lake-catchment approach for determining sediment source changes at Aqualate Mere, Central England. J Paleolimnol 42:215–232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-008-9272-9
Porto P, Walling DE, Alewell C, Callegari G, Mabit L, Mallimo N, Meusburger K, Zehringer M (2014) Use of a 137Cs re-sampling technique to investigate temporal changes in soil erosion and sediment mobilisation for a small forested catchment in southern Italy. J Environ Radioact 138:137–148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2014.08.007
Pulley S, Foster I (2016) Can channel banks be the dominant source of fine sediment in a UK river?: an example using 137Cs to interpret sediment yield and sediment source. Earth Surf Proc Land 42(4):624–634. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.4005
Pulley S, Foster I, Antunes P (2015) The application of sediment fingerprinting to floodplain and lake sediment cores: assumptions and uncertainties evaluated through case studies in the Nene Basin, UK. J Soil Sediment 15:2132–2154
Ritchie JC, McHenry JR (1990) Application of radioactive fallout cesium-137 for measuring soil erosion and sediment accumulation rates and patterns: a review. J Environ Qual 19:215–233. https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq1990.00472425001900020006x
Robbins JA (1985) The Coupled Lake Model for estimating the long-term response of the Great Lakes to time-dependent loadings of particle-associated contaminants. NOAA Tech. Memo. ERL GLERL-57. NOAA, Ann Arbor, MI
Robbins JA, Edington DN, Kemp ALW (1977) Comparative lead-210, cesium-137 and pollen geochronologies of recent sediments from Lakes Erie and Ontario. In Radiological and Environ Res Div Annu Rep, Ecology Argonne Nat1 Lab, Argonne, pp 87–92
Solan M, Herringshaw LG (2008) Bioturbation in aquatic environments: linking past and present. Aquat Biol 2:201–205
Stott AP (1987) Medium-term effects of afforestation on sediment dynamics in a water supply catchment: a mineral magnetic interpretation of reservoir deposits in the macclesfield forest, N.W. England. Earth Surf Proc Land 12:619–630. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.3290120605
Tamura T, Jacobs DG (1960) Structural implications in cesium sorption. Health Phys 2:391–398
Tolstykh EI, Degteva MO, Peremyslova LM, Shagina NB, Shishkina EA, Krivoshchapov VA, Anspaugh LR, Napier BA (2011) Reconstruction of long-lived radionuclide intakes for Techa riverside residents: strontium-90. Health Phys 101:28–47
Walling DE, Bradley SB (1989) Rates and patterns of contemporary floodplain sedimentation: a case study of the river Culm, Devon, UK. GeoJournal 19:53–62
Walling DE, Foster IDL (2016) Using environmental radionuclides and sediment geochemistry for tracing and dating fine fluvial sediment. In: Kondolf M, Piegay H (eds) Tools in fluvial geomorphology, 2nd edn. Wiley, Chichester, pp 183–209
Walling DE, He Q (1992) Interpretation of 137Cs profiles in lacustrine and other sediments: the role of catchment derived inputs. Hydrobiologia 235–236:219–230
Walling DE, He Q (1993) Towards improved interpretation of 137Cs profiles in Lake sediments. In: McManus J, Duck R (eds) The geomorphology and sedimentology of lakes and reservoirs. Wiley, Chichester, pp 31–53
Walling DE, Quine TA (1990) Calibration of caesium-137 measurements to provide quantitative erosion rate data. Land Degrad Dev 2:161–175. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.3400020302
Walling DE, Quine TA (1992) The use of caesium-137 measurements in soil erosion surveys. Erosion and sediment transport monitoring programmes in river basins (proceedings of the Oslo symposium, August 1992). IAHS Publ. no. 210. IAHS. Wallingford, UK
Walling DE, Woodward JC (1992) Use of radiometric fingerprints to derive information on suspended sediment sources. Erosion and sediment transport monitoring programmes in river basins (Proceedings symposium Oslo, 1992), International Association of Hydrological Sciences Publication No. 210, IAHS Press, Wallingford, UK, pp 153–164
Walling DE, Woodward JC (1995) Tracing sources of suspended sediment in river basins: a case study of the River Culm, Devon, UK. Mar Freshw Res 46:327–336
Walling DE, Zhang Y (2008) Documenting soil erosion rates on agricultural land in England and Wales: phase 2. Defra project report SP0413
Walling DE, Woodward JC, Nicholas AP (1993) A multi-parameter approach to fingerprinting suspended sediment sources. In: Peters NE, Hoehn E, Leibundgut CH, Tase N, Walling DE (eds) Tracers in hydrology. IAHS Publication no. 215. IAHS, Wallingford, pp 329–338
Walling DE, Owens PN, Leeks GJL (1999) Fingerprinting suspended sediment sources in the catchment of the River Ouse, Yorkshire, UK. Hydrol Process 13:955–975
Walling DE, Owens PN, Waterfall BD, Leeks GJL, Wass PD (2000) The particle size characteristics of fluvial suspended sediment in the Humber and Tweed catchments, UK. Sci Tot Environ 251(252):205–222
Yang H, Rose NL (2005) Temporal trends of toxic trace metals across the UK using 210Pb-dated sediment cores: final report to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Environmental Change Research Centre. Research Report No. 104. Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London, London
Yeloff DE, Labadz JC, Hunt CO, Higgitt DL, Foster IDL (2005) Blanket peat erosion and sediment yield in an upland reservoir catchment in the southern Pennines, UK. Earth Surf Proc Land 30:717–733
Acknowledgements
Rothamsted Research receives strategic funding from the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC Grant number BBS/E/C/000I0330). Assistance with coring the lakes in the South Downs was provided by Naomi Holmes and John Boardman. We also thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their very thorough and helpful comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pulley, S., Foster, I.D.L., Collins, A.L. et al. An analysis of potential controls on long-term 137Cs accumulation in the sediments of UK lakes. J Paleolimnol 60, 1–30 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-017-0016-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-017-0016-6