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Sampling soil and sediment depth profiles at a fine resolution with a new device for determining physical, chemical and biological properties: the Fine Increment Soil Collector (FISC)

  • SEDIMENTS, SEC 3 • HILLSLOPE AND RIVER BASIN SEDIMENT DYNAMICS • SHORT ORIGINAL COMMUNICATION
  • Published:
Journal of Soils and Sediments Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Many environmental investigations (empirical and modelling) and theories are based on reliable information on the depth distribution of physical, chemical and biological properties in soils and sediments. However, such depth profiles are not easy to determine using current approaches, and, consequently, new devices are needed that are able to sample soils and sediments at fine resolutions.

Materials and methods

We have designed an economic, portable, hand-operated surface soil/sediment sampler—the Fine Increment Soil Collector (FISC)—which allows for the close control of incremental soil/sediment sampling and for easy recovery of the material collected by a simple screw-thread extraction system. This innovative sampling system was developed originally for the beryllium-7 (7Be) approach in soil and sediment redistribution research. To ensure reliable estimates of soil erosion and sediment deposition from 7Be measurements, the depth distribution of this short-lived fallout radionuclide in soil/sediment at the resolution of millimetres is a crucial requirement. This major challenge of the 7Be approach can be met by using the FISC.

Results and discussion

We demonstrate the usefulness of the FISC by characterising the depth distribution of 7Be at increments of 2.5 mm for a soil reference site in Austria. The activity concentration of 7Be at the uppermost increment (0–2.5 mm) was ca. 14 Bq kg−1 and displayed decreasing activity with depth. Using most conventional sampling devices (i.e. the scraper-plate system), the most accurate depth increment would have been 10 mm, and the activity concentration at the surface would have been considerably lower. Consequently, coarser sampling would have influenced estimates of 7Be-derived soil erosion and deposition. The potential application for other soil/sediment properties, such as nutrients (e.g. phosphorus), contaminants and carbon are also discussed.

Conclusions

By enabling soil and sediment profiles to be sampled at a depth resolution of millimetres, the FISC has the potential to provide key information when addressing several environmental and geoscientific issues, such as the precise depth distributions of soil/sediment nutrients, contaminants and biological properties.

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Acknowledgments

This research has been performed in the frame of two IAEA Co-ordinated Research Projects (CRP), the CRP (D1.20.11) on “Integrated Isotopic Approaches for an Area-wide Precision Conservation to Control the Impacts of Agricultural Practices on Land Degradation and Soil Erosion” and the CRP D1.50.15 on “Response to Nuclear Emergencies Affecting Food and Agriculture”. The authors would like to acknowledge the technical support provided by Mr. Anton Nirschl, Supervisor Mechanical Workshop, Technical Support Team Office of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Safeguards Analytical Services. The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers and to the submission editor for their valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Soil and Water Management and Crop Nutrition Laboratory, FAO/IAEA Agriculture & Biotechnology Laboratory, IAEA Laboratories, 2444, Seibersdorf, Austria

    Lionel Mabit & Arsenio Toloza

  2. Environmental Geosciences, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Katrin Meusburger & Christine Alewell

  3. Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Andra-Rada Iurian

  4. Environmental Science Program and Quesnel River Research Centre, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, V2N4Z9, Canada

    Philip N. Owens

Authors
  1. Lionel Mabit
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  2. Katrin Meusburger
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  3. Andra-Rada Iurian
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  4. Philip N. Owens
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  5. Arsenio Toloza
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  6. Christine Alewell
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Correspondence to Lionel Mabit.

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Responsible editor: David Allen Lobb

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Mabit, L., Meusburger, K., Iurian, AR. et al. Sampling soil and sediment depth profiles at a fine resolution with a new device for determining physical, chemical and biological properties: the Fine Increment Soil Collector (FISC). J Soils Sediments 14, 630–636 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-013-0834-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-013-0834-8

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