Proyectos vigentes

Developing capacity and building evidence for climate change impacts on soil, sediments and water resources in mountainous regions

Equipo

Erosion, and Soil and Water Evaluation

Acrónimo

IAEA-ONU INT 5156

IP

Edson Ramírez (Bolivia), Yanhong Wu (China) | IP España: Ana Navas (EEAD-CSIC)

Resumen

The interregional IAEA project aims to improve the understanding of the impact of climate change on fragile polar and mountainous ecosystems on both a local and global scale for their better management and conservation. Seven core and five related benchmark sites have been selected from different global regions for specific assessments of the impact of climate change.
To improve understanding of the impact of climate change on fragile polar and mountainous ecosystems at the local and global scale for enhanced agricultural water and soil management. The nuclear and isotope-based techniques will be used in an integrated way: (1) fallout radionuclides, (2) Compound-Specific Stable Isotope Analysis, (3) C-14 dating, (4) C-13 and N-15 analysis, (5) O-18 and Deuterium analysis and (6) Cosmic Ray Neutron sensor technology.

Actividades del proyecto

(1) Isotopic techniques, such as the use of the environmental occurring fallout radionuclides (FRNs) Caesium-137 (137Cs, tm = 30.2 y), Excess Lead-210 (210Pbex, tm = 22.2 y) and Beryllium-7 (7Be, tm = 53.3 d), have proved to be by far the most successful tools to assess soil erosion and sediment redistribution rates in different time scales and determine the efficiency of soil conservation measures in controlling erosion and protecting water quality. Also, they can be used to measure sedimentation rates to be compared with continuous melting events (reconstructed from meteorological information).

(2) Compound-Specific Stable Isotope analysis (CSSI) is crucial to test temperature sensitivity of soil organic matter decay and temperature sensitivity of microbiological physiology.

(3) C-14 dating for dating the dynamics of ice masses and calculating/validating soil erosion and sedimentation rates in water bodies, as well as age of soil organic carbon.

(4) C-13 and N-15 analyses will be used both in soil organic carbon and paleoclimate reconstruction from sediment cores as indicators of soil organic carbon stability and as paleoenvironmental markers of water cycle, respectively.

(5) O-18 and D analysis of ice, snow and water will be used for tracing origin in relation to glacier movement, in combination with other conventional methods (conductivity and pH).

(6) Cosmic ray neutron sensors exist in both mobile and stationary forms and can provide integrated measures of soil moisture over an area of approximately 20 ha.

Fecha inicio

01/06/2020

Fecha finalización

01/06/2024

Organismo financiador

International Atomic Energy Agency, Joint Division FAO-IAEA. United Nations. Interregional Programme

Cuantía

'00000€