Fingerprinting surficial sediment sources: Exploring some potential problems associated with the spatial variability of source material properties

- Spatial variability and correlation of fingerprint properties are investigated.
- The study focused on a small 7 ha cultivated field treated as a single source.
- 53 geochemical properties of the surface soil were included in the analysis.
- Cs-137 measurement were used to document erosion rates within the field.
- The influence of erosion rate on the soil property variability is explored.

Recent advances in sediment source tracing or fingerprinting procedures have focussed primarily on the use of novel sediment properties that are either easier to measure or provide improved source discrimination, or on improved procedures for representing and estimating the uncertainty associated with the final source apportionment results. Spatial variability of source properties has long been recognised as a potential problem for the approach, but there have been few attempts to explore the nature and magnitude of such variability and its wider implications for source fingerprinting investigations. This contribution addresses this issue with particular reference to surficial sediment sources. It reports the results of an investigation aimed at documenting the magnitude and nature of the spatial variability of the geochemical properties of surface soils within a single 7 ha cultivated field and exploring the implications of the findings for sediment source fingerprinting procedures. Samples of surface soil were collected from 52 points located within the field. Particular attention is directed to the extent of the spatial variability of 53 geochemical properties of the surface soil which could potentially be used as fingerprints, the importance of the influence of soil redistribution rate on the properties of the surface soil, provision of guidelines for selecting sampling points and the degree of correlation between different soil properties and its implications for the numerical procedures employed in sediment source fingerprinting studies. A novel aspect of the study is that caesium-137 (137Cs) measurements were used to provide information on the magnitude and spatial pattern of the soil redistribution rate within the field, so that the influence of soil redistribution rate in causing systematic spatial variability of fingerprint properties could be further explored.