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Feasibility of magnetite powder as an erosion tracer for main soils across China

  • Soils, Sec 5 • Soil and Landscape Ecology • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to explore the potential feasibility of magnetite powder as an erosion tracer for national-scale soil erosion monitoring in China.

Materials and methods

This study evaluated the effectiveness of silt-sized magnetite powder, a magnetic erosion tracer, in four representative erodible soils in China with distinct textures (from sandy loam to silty clay). The χlf values of different magnetic tracer-tagged aggregate size ranges (> 0.05 mm) were similar based on dry aggregate analysis.

Results and discussion

Simulated long-term leaching tests showed that the tracer had low mobility in soil profiles. The simultaneous separation of the tracer and tested soils under surface flow scouring conditions indicates that the tracer exhibited good bonding ability with different soils.

Conclusions

These findings indicate that magnetite powder is suitable for erosion monitoring in China. This method may be extended to other regions over the world.

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Funding

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41701310, 41301301), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS: XDB40020300) “Light of West China” Program, and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2016 M602884).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Liang Liu and Hongyuan Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China of Jiangsu Province, Key Laboratory of Soil and Water Conservation and Ecological Restoration of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China

    Liang Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Science, Changchun, 130102, China

    Hongyuan Liu

  3. School of Geography, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Suhua Fu & Keli Zhang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resource, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    Suhua Fu & Mingbin Huang

  5. Guangdong Open Laboratory of Geospatial Information Technology and Application, Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangzhou, 510070, China

    Meili Wen

  6. College of Urban and Environmental Science, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, Liaoning, China

    Yue Yu

  7. CAS Center for Excellence in Quaternary Science and Global Change, Xi’an, 710061, Shaanxi, China

    Mingbin Huang

Authors
  1. Liang Liu
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  2. Hongyuan Liu
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  3. Suhua Fu
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  4. Keli Zhang
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  5. Meili Wen
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  6. Yue Yu
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  7. Mingbin Huang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mingbin Huang.

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Responsible editor: Yi Jun Xu

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Liu, L., Liu, H., Fu, S. et al. Feasibility of magnetite powder as an erosion tracer for main soils across China. J Soils Sediments 20, 2207–2216 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-020-02574-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-020-02574-7

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