Fallout beryllium-7 as a tracer in soil erosion investigations

Recent developments in the use of the environmental radionuclides 137Cs and 210Pb for documenting medium-term soil erosion rates must be seen as an important advance. However, measurements of these radionuclides provide estimates of medium-term (i.e. ca. 45 or 100 years) soil redistribution rates and there is a need to explore the potential for using complementary radionuclides, to estimate erosion rates associated with individual events or short periods. Beryllium-7 (7Be, t0.5=53 days) has the potential to fulfil these requirements. This contribution presents some preliminary results from an investigation undertaken in a field near Crediton, UK, which successfully demonstrates the potential for using 7Be as a tracer in soil erosion investigations.