Small-scale variability of gully erosion rates and soil properties in the Crveni Potok catchment

Abstract

Contemporary research has given much attention to explaining and managing gully erosion processes, which significantly compromise environmental quality. The need to reliably quantify soil redistribution has led to the development of the (nuclear) 137Cs technique, herein applied to obtain such estimates within the gully in the Crveni potok catchment, an erosion-prone area of Eastern Serbia. The study also aimed to find relations among the erosion rates and soil physicochemical properties. The erosion rate was significantly correlated (p<0.05) only with the particle size distribution, specifically being negatively correlated with silt and positively correlated with the fine sand fraction. The loss of silt fraction could lead to erosion expansion and sedimentation outside the gully, implying that remediation measures (e.g., reestablishing a vegetation cover) must be taken to prevent the advancement of soil redistribution issues.