Why in News?

• Indian scientists have now developed a method to measure the rate of soil erosion and associated decrease in organic content in soil by assessing levels of radioactive cesium in soil.

Radioactive Cesium Technology:

• Researchers at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun have developed a way to monitor soil erosion and decrease in carbon content in soil by relating it with levels of radioactive cesium in soil.
• Carbon concentration is soil correlates with levels of isotope of cesium.
• Different sites were found to have varying levels of cesium pointing at different degrees of soil degradation in different sites.
• By applying various formulas, the cesium loss was then used to calculate erosion and associated carbon loss in soil.
• For measuring cesium levels in soil, gamma spectroscopy technique was used.

Significance:

• Radioactive cesium technology is a more rapid and less expensive method for soil erosion studies in the severely intensive croplands.
• It gives more accurate results for all types of erosion studies including historic, comparative and long-term soil and soil organic carbon erosion.
• This method can help in monitoring the effects of soil erosion and effectiveness of soil conservation strategies.

Why Monitor Soil Erosion?

• Soil supports plants, insects and microbial life and is formed by natural forces over a long period of time.
• Carbon reaches soil through the microbial action on withering plant parts and remains in soil, changing its physio-chemical properties and also enhancing its fertility.
• This way soil also sequesters carbon helping in regulating carbon levels in the atmosphere.
• Soil erosion, which involves disaggregation and displacement of soil, leads to decrease in its organic content and eventually its fertility.
• Natural and human activities are contributing to soil erosion and posing problems for both food production and climate change.
• Therefore, monitoring of soil erosion induced-carbon loss from soil is important.