Using rare earth element tracers and neutron activation analysis to study rill erosion process

Spatially averaged soil erosion data provide little information on the process of rill erosion. The dynamically varied data on the temporal and spatial distributions in the rill erosion process are needed to better understand the erosion process and reveal its innate characteristics. The objectives of this study were to examine the feasibility and effectiveness of rare earth element (REE) tracers and the neutron activation analysis (NAA) method on the study of the rill erosion process and to reveal quantitatively the relationships and characteristics of temporal and spatial distributions of sediment yield in rill erosion. Four REEs were used to study the changeable process of rill erosion at 4 slope positions. Four water inflow rates were applied to a 0.3×5 m soil bed at 3 slopes of 10.5%, 15.8% and 21.2% in scouring experiments. All of the runoff was collected in the experiment. Each sample was air-dried and well mixed. Then 20 g of each sample was sieved through 100-mesh and about a 50 mg sample was weighed for analysis of the four elemental compositions by NAA. Results indicate that the REE tracers and NAA method can be used to not only quantitatively determine soil erosion amounts on different slope segments, but also to reveal the changeable process of rill erosion amount. All of the relative errors of the experimental results were less than 25%, which is considered satisfactory on the study of rill erosion process.