Anthropogenic driven soil erosion has increased drastically within the last few centuries. Accelerated removal of topsoil degrades soil characteristics, decreasing the agricultural capacity to sustain food production for future human generations. In order to reduce sediment erosion to a minimum, soil movement dynamics have to be understood over relevant timescales. Emphasis is required on human land use, which has changed over time, altering erosion and deposition processes in the landscape. This thesis aims to understand the development of erosion with time and studies the effects of the anthropogenic impact on the Earth’s surface. A case study was conducted in the Christina River Basin in south-eastern Pennsylvania (USA) to evaluate the anthropogenic impact on sediment redistribution before and during European colonisation of the US East Coast. The Christina River Basin is focus of the Christina River Basin Critical Zone Observatory, where researchers of many disciplines (e.g. hydrology, geochemistry, geology, biology, geomorphology, soil science) study the interactions of the water, mineral and carbon cycle in relation to different land uses. This site is particularly suitable for this study due to the sudden change in land use with the arrival of European Settlers and the well-recorded history of land use in the area since. Besides sediment processes related to the European colonisation, special emphasis was placed on the last century and the particular impact of land management practices on the landscape. For the approach of this study, upland and depositional sediment profiles, as well as suspended sediment collected from rivers at different times were analysed for radionuclide activity. In particular, a combination of the short-lived radionuclides 7Be, 210Pb, and 137Cs with the long-lived meteoric nuclide 10Be was used to allow detection of sediment erosion as well as tracing of sediment source to streams over different time frames. Natural sediment processes were studied by investigating meteoric 10Be in different upland and valley hollow soil profiles in the Christina River Basin. Natu-ral sediment erosion rates of 17 to 18 mm per 1000 years and soil residence time of 26,000 to 57,000 years in upland sites classify the region to be characterised by slowly eroding soils. Valley hollow study sites indicate an alteration in sediment supply due to climate change within the last 80,000 years. Analysis of meteoric 10Be on suspended sediment in rivers with time (from pre-colonial to present times) and a comparison to the historical background of land use management indicated drastic changes in the sediment sources to the streams during the colonisation of the US East Coast. Such profound changes in the soil movement dynamics can be tied to a complete deforestation of the watershed during that time. However, a slow recovery of sediment sources to pre-colonial conditions within the last 100 years was observed, which may be related to the afforestation in parts of the watershed and change in farming practises. Examination of floodplains in recent history (last 100 years) using 210Pb and 137Cs identified a correlation between changes in land use and floodplain development. In particular, deforestation led to channel migration within the watershed, whereas afforestation reduced the flood magnitude. A discrimination of different sediment sources (agricultural and forest surface, channel migration) was detected on present suspended sediment by using a combination of tracers: 7Be, 137Cs, 210Pb and 10Be. About 50 % of sediment in the stream was attributed to channel migration classifying the stream as relatively unstable, whereas the second major sediment contribution was agricultural soil (32 %). As both sources are closely related to human activity in the study area, appropriate land management practices and stream channel stabilisation are of great importance for a hydro- and morphodynamic balance in future times. Results presented in this study provide evidence of the powerful impact anthropogenic land use has had on sediment movement in the Christina River Basin. More importantly, this study has shown the usefulness of combining long- and short-lived radionuclides to identify soil redistribution at different time periods and scales. Radionuclide data does not only reflect the drastic impact during European colonisation but also detects gradual changes that occur due to human action to limit soil erosion within the last century. This study indicates that some of the best management practices may minimise anthropogenic induced soil erosion, whilst simultaneously signifying the need to further improve land use management and reduce sediment erosion.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Subglacial chemical processes in Antarctica are potentially significant contributors to global geochemical cycles, but current understanding of their scale and nature is limited. A sequential chemical extraction procedure was developed and tested to investigate the utility of meteoric 10Be as a tracer for chemical weathering processes beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Subglacial meltwater is widely available under the Antarctic Ice Sheet and chemical constituents within it have the potential to drive geochemical weathering processes in the subglacial environment. Meteoric 10Be is a cosmogenic nuclide with a half-life of 1.39×106 years that is incorporated into glacier ice, therefore its abundance in the subglacial environment in Antarctica is meltwater dependent. It is known to adsorb to fine-grained particles in aqueous solution, precipitate with amorphous oxides, and/or be incorporated into authigenic clay structures during chemical weathering. The presence of 10Be in weathering products derived from beneath the ice therefore indicates chemical weathering processes in the subglacial environment. Freshly emerging subglacial sediments from the Mt. Achernar blue ice moraine were subject to chemical extractions where these weathering phases were isolated and 10Be concentrations therein quantified. Optimization of the phase isolation was developed by examining the effects of each extraction on the sample mineralogy and chemical composition. Experiments on 10Be desorption revealed that pH 3.2-3.5 was optimal for the extraction of adsorbed 10Be. Vigorous disaggregation of the samples before grain size separations and acid extractions is crucial due to the preferential fractionation of the nuclide with clay-sized particles. 10Be concentrations of 2-22×107 atoms g-1 measured in oxides and clay minerals in freshly emerging sediments strongly indicate subglacial chemical weathering in the catchment of the Mt. Achernar moraine. Sediment-meltwater contact in the system was calculated to be on the order of thousands of years, based on total 10Be sample concentrations, local basal melt rates, and 10Be ice concentrations. Strong correlation (R = 0.96) between 10Be and smectite abundance in the sediments indicate authigenic clay formation in the subglacial environment. This study shows that meteoric 10Be is a useful tool to characterize subglacial geochemical weathering processes under the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Le lessivage du lutum (0-2 µm) est un de processus majeurs de la pédogenèse, qui a néanmoins été peu quantifié et modélisé. Ce processus ainsi que la bioturbation ont été quantifiés ici en couplant des différents systèmes isotopiques (137Cs, 210Pb (xs), 10Be atmosphérique, 206/207Pb, δ13C, 14C) à une modélisation numérique par une équation de diffusion-convection à paramètres variables avec la profondeur. Cette méthode originale a été appliquée sur des anthroposéquences de Luvisols développées sur du loess et différantes de par leur utilisation (culture, prairie ou forêt) et leurs pratiques agricoles (travail du sol, apport du fumier). Nos résultats montrent que 91 ± 9 % du 137Cs et 80 ± 9 % du 10Be sont associés au lutum et ainsi peuvent effectivement tracer des transferts verticaux de matière solide dans les sols à pH > 5 et à teneur en carbone organique faible. Le partage du plomb entre les différentes phases solides est plus complexe. En considérant deux compartiments pour les isotopes (macropores ou la matrice de sol), nous avons conçu un modèle multi-isotopique permettant de quantifier la contribution des transferts de matière solide à la distribution verticale de la fraction 0-2 µm actuelle. Le lessivage est responsable de 9 à 66 % de l'accumulation de lutum dans l'horizon Bt. Le coefficient de diffusion permet de quantifier le taux de mélange par la bioturbation. La modélisation multi-isotopique est une méthode de prédilection pour les études modernes de la pédogenèse et des processus de la zone critique. / Clay translocation is one of the major soil forming processes, howeverit is poorly quantified and modeled. We propose to quantify it togetherwith bioturbation by combining different isotopic systems (137Cs , 210Pb (xs),meteoric 10Be, 206/207Pb, δ13C, 14C) with numerical modeling based on a nonlineardiffusion-convection equation with depth dependent parameters. Thisnovel method has been applied on Luvisol anthroposequences developed onloess, differing by their land use (cropping versus grassland or forest) andtheir agricultural practices (reduced tillage, no tillage and manure input).Our results show that as much as 91 ± 9 % and 80 ± 9 % of 137Cs and10Be, respectively, are associated to the clay size fraction (0-2 µm) and canthus effectively trace vertical solid matter transfers in soils with pH > 5 andlow organic carbon. Lead partitioning between different solid phases is morecomplex. Considering two spatial distributions of isotopes (macropores or soilmatrix), we built up a multi-isotopic modelling approach that simulates theexperimental data with the common set of transfer parameters and allowedus to quantify the relative contributions of vertical solid matter transfers topresent-day 0-2 µm vertical distributions. Clay translocation is responsiblefor 9 to 66 % of the clay accumulations in the Bt-horizon. The diffusion coefficientalso quantifies the rate of soil mixing by bioturbation. Modeling of thekinetics of solid matter transfer at multiple spatio-temporal scales should becomea method of predilection in modern pedogenic and critical zone studies.