Wheat field erosion rates and channel bottom sediment sources in an intensively cropped northeastern oregon drainage basin

Sediment tracers were used to quantify erosion from cultivated fields and identify major source areas of channel,bottom sediment within the Wildhorse Creek drainage, an intensively cropped tributary of the Umatilla River in northeastern Oregon, USA. Available data indicated that Wildhorse Creek was one of the largest sediment yielding tributaries of the Umatilla River. Carbon, nitrogen and the nuclear bomb-derived radionuclide Cs-137 were used-as tracers to fingerprint sediment sources. Sediment was collected from the stream bottom and active floodplain and.-compared to samples from cultivated fields and channel banks. Samples were characterized on the basis of tracer concentrations and a simple mixing model was used to estimate the relative portion of bottom sediment derived from cultivated surface and channel banks. The results indicate that the amount of bottom sediment derived from cultivated surface sources was less than 26 per cent for the 1998 winter season, although this estimate has a high margin of error. Cesium-137 was also used to estimate surface erosion from three cultivated fields in the watershed. Annual estimates of erosion since 1963 from the three sampled fields were from 3 to 7(.)5 t ha(-1) yr(-1). For the 1998 season, it appears that most channel-bottom sediment was of subsurface origin with much of it likely coming from channel and gully banks indicating that significant reductions in sediment in Wildhorse Creek might be accomplished by the stabilization of eroding riparian areas and swales on the lower slopes of agricultural fields. Published in 2004 by John Wiley Sons, Ltd.