Quantitative assessment of effectiveness of soil conservation measures using a combination of 137Cs radioactive tracer and conventional techniques

The 137Cs method overestimates gross and net soil redistribution rates, as a result of the influence of extreme erosion prior to tillage mixing of a fresh fallout isotope, not accounted for by calibration models used. Another shortcoming of the estimations obtained is that sediment redeposition directly within forest belts was not taken into account. Therefore, net erosion rates obtained for slopes with forest belts should be regarded as overestimation. Nevertheless, it can be generally concluded that the multi-technical approach has allowed acquiring much more detailed information on temporal and spatial variability of soil redistribution rates than single method-based studies.