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Agricultural land is the main source of stream sediments after conversion of an African montane forest

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Title Agricultural land is the main source of stream sediments after conversion of an African montane forest
 
Creator Stenfert Kroese, J.
Batista, P.V.G.
Jacobs, S.R.
Breuer, Lutz
Quinton, J.N.
Rufino, Mariana C.
 
Subject agricultural land
mountain areas
catchment hydrology
 
Description In many parts of Africa, soil erosion is an important problem, which is evident from high sediment yields in tropical montane streams. Previous studies in Kenya pointed to a large contribution from catchments cultivated by smallholder farmers. This led to the hypothesis that unpaved tracks and gullies are the main sediment sources in smallholder agriculture catchments of the highlands of Kenya. The aim of this study was to investigate the sediment sources with sediment fingerprinting to generate the knowledge base to improve land management and to reduce sediment yields. Four main sediment sources (agricultural land, unpaved tracks, gullies and channel banks) and suspended sediments were analysed for biogeochemical elements as potential tracers. To apportion the catchments target sediment to different sources, we applied the MixSIAR un-mixing modelling under a Bayesian framework. Surprisingly, the fingerprinting analysis showed that agricultural land accounted for 75% (95% confidence interval 63–86%) of the total sediment. Channel banks contributed 21% (8–32%), while the smallest contributions to sediment were generated by the unpaved tracks and gullies with 3% (0–12%) and 1% (0–4%), respectively. Erosion management strategies should target agricultural lands with an emphasis on disconnecting unpaved tracks form hillslope source areas to reduce sediment yields to Lake Victoria.
 
Date 2020-09-30
2020-10-27T09:22:13Z
2020-10-27T09:22:13Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Kroese, J.S., Batista, P.V., Jacobs, S.R., Breuer, L., Quinton, J.N. and Rufino, M.C., 2020. Agricultural land is the main source of stream sediments after conversion of an African montane forest. Scientific reports, 10(1), 14827. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71924-9
2045-2322
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/114403
https://www.cifor.org/library/8069
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71924-9
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-4.0
Open Access
 
Format 14827
 
Publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
 
Source Scientific Reports