TY - THES A1 - Theuring, Philipp Christian T1 - Suspended sediments in the Kharaa River, sources and impacts T1 - Feinsedimente im Kharaa Fluss, Quellen und Auswirkungen N2 - Anthropogenically amplified erosion leads to increased fine-grained sediment input into the fluvial system in the 15.000 km2 Kharaa River catchment in northern Mongolia and constitutes a major stressing factor for the aquatic ecosystem. This study uniquely combines the application of intensive monitoring, source fingerprinting and catchment modelling techniques to allow for the comparison of the credibility and accuracy of each single method. High-resolution discharge data were used in combination with daily suspended solid measurements to calculate the suspended sediment budget and compare it with estimations of the sediment budget model SedNet. The comparison of both techniques showed that the development of an overall sediment budget with SedNet was possible, yielding results in the same order of magnitude (20.3 kt a- 1 and 16.2 kt a- 1). Radionuclide sediment tracing, using Be-7, Cs-137 and Pb-210 was applied to differentiate sediment sources for particles < 10μm from hillslope and riverbank erosion and showed that riverbank erosion generates 74.5% of the suspended sediment load, whereas surface erosion contributes 21.7% and gully erosion only 3.8%. The contribution of the single subcatchments of the Kharaa to the suspended sediment load was assessed based on their variation in geochemical composition (e.g. in Ti, Sn, Mo, Mn, As, Sr, B, U, Ca and Sb). These variations were used for sediment source discrimination with geochemical composite fingerprints based on Genetic Algorithm driven Discriminant Function Analysis, the Kruskal–Wallis H-test and Principal Component Analysis. The contributions of the individual sub-catchment varied from 6.4% to 36.2%, generally showing higher contributions from the sub-catchments in the middle, rather than the upstream portions of the study area. The results indicate that river bank erosion generated by existing grazing practices of livestock is the main cause for elevated fine sediment input. Actions towards the protection of the headwaters and the stabilization of the river banks within the middle reaches were identified as the highest priority. Deforestation and by lodging and forest fires should be prevented to avoid increased hillslope erosion in the mountainous areas. Mining activities are of minor importance for the overall catchment sediment load but can constitute locally important point sources for particular heavy metals in the fluvial system. N2 - Durch Landnutzung erhöhte Erosion führt zu verstärktem Eintrag von Feinsedimenten im 15.000 km2 großen Einzugsgebiet des Kharaa in der nördlichen Mongolei. Diese Einträge stellen einen starken Stressor für das aquatische Ökosystem dar. Im Rahmen dieser Studie werden auf neuartige Weise verschiedene Ansätze zur Untersuchung der Feinsedimentdynamik im Einzugsgebiet kombiniert. Der Vergleich der Ergebnisse aus zeitlich hochaufgelösten Abfluss- und Schwebstoffanalysen, Sedimentbudgetmodellierung und „Sediment Source Fingerprinting“ Techniken erlaubt eine Bewertung der Genauigkeit und Anwendbarkeit jeder einzelnen Methodik im Untersuchungsgebiet. Das anhand von Abflussund Schwebstoffmessdaten berechnete Sedimentbudget am Gebietsauslass wurde mit dem mittels des Sedimentbudgetmodels SedNet berechneten Sedimentbudget verglichen. Die Ergebnisse von des aus Abfluss- und Schwebstoffmessdaten berechneten Sedimentbudgets (20,3 kt a- 1) und der mittels SedNet berechneten Werte (16,2 kt a- 1) zeigen eine befriedigende Übereinstimmung und bekräftigen die Anwendbarkeit des Models. Zur Unterscheidung der Herkunft der Feinsedimente hinsichtlich des dominanten Erosionsprozesses wurde die Sedimentfraktion < 10μm hinsichtlich der Konzentrationen der Radioisotope Be-7, Cs-137 und Pb-210 analysiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Gerinneerosion für 74.5% der Suspensionsfracht verantwortlich ist und Einträge durch Flächenerosion 21.7% und durch Gully-erosion nur 3.8% beitragen. Zur Untersuchung der Anteile der Teileinzugsgebiete an der Gesamtsuspensionsfracht am Gebietsauslass wurden die Sedimente der Teilgebiete hinsichtlich der Variation ihrer geochemischen Zusammensetzung untersucht (z.B. Ti, Sn, Mo, Mn, As, Sr, B, U, Ca und Sb). Anhand der Zusammensetzung wurde jeweils ein spezifischer “Fingerabdruck” für Sedimente aus spezifischen Teileinzugsgebieten definiert. Mittels Diskriminanzanalyse, Kruskal–Wallis H-test und Hauptkomponentenanalyse konnten die Beiträge der Teileinzugsgebiete an der Gesamtfracht mit einem Mischungsmodel berechnet werden. Generell trugen die oberläufigen Teileinzugsgebiete am geringsten, und die mittelläufigen am stärksten zur Sediment Fracht bei. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, dass durch Überweidung begünstigte Ufererosion für den Hauptteil der Suspensionsfracht im Kharaa Fluss verantwortlich ist. Zur Verringerung des Schwebstoffeintrags in den Fluss werden Maßnahmen zur Uferbefestigung, insbesondere der Schutz und die Wiederherstellung der Ufervegetation als primäre Maßnahmen empfohlen. KW - sediment source fingerprinting KW - Mongolia KW - suspended sediments KW - sediment transport modelling KW - Mongolei KW - Sedimentquellenidentifizierung KW - Feinsedimente KW - Sedimentfracht Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-410550 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Struck, Martin A1 - Andermann, Christoff A1 - Hovius, Niels A1 - Korup, Oliver A1 - Turowski, Jens M. A1 - Bista, Raj A1 - Pandit, Hari P. A1 - Dahal, Ranjan K. T1 - Monsoonal hillslope processes determine grain size-specific suspended sediment fluxes in a trans-Himalayan river JF - Geophysical research letters N2 - Sediments in rivers record the dynamics of erosion processes. While bulk sediment fluxes are easily and routinely obtained, sediment caliber remains underexplored when inferring erosion mechanisms. Yet sediment grain size distributions may be the key to discriminating their origin. We have studied grain size-specific suspended sediment fluxes in the Kali Gandaki, a major trans-Himalayan river. Two strategically located gauging stations enable tracing of sediment caliber on either side of the Himalayan orographic barrier. The data show that fine sediment input into the northern headwaters is persistent, while coarse sediment comes from the High Himalayas during the summer monsoon. A temporally matching landslide inventory similarly indicates the prominence of monsoon-driven hillslope mass wasting. Thus, mechanisms of sediment supply can leave strong traces in the fluvial caliber, which could project well beyond the mountain front and add to the variability of the sedimentary record of orogen erosion. KW - Himalayas KW - erosion KW - grain size KW - suspended sediments KW - landslide KW - river transport Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063360 SN - 0094-8276 SN - 1944-8007 VL - 42 IS - 7 SP - 2302 EP - 2308 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iroume, Andres A1 - Carey, Patricio A1 - Bronstert, Axel A1 - Huber, Anton A1 - Palacios, Hardin T1 - GIS application of USLE and MUSLE to estimate erosion and suspended sediment load in experimental catchments, Valdivia, Chile JF - Revista técnica de la Facultad de Ingenieria N2 - This paper presents the results of a research aimed to quantify suspended sediment transport in three experimental catchments in southern Chile, to compare measured suspended sediment load with estimated erosion using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) applied in a GIS environment and to validate de Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE) used to estimate suspended sediment loads from forest catchments. The catchments are Los Pinos (94.2 ha), Los Ulmos 1 (12.6 ha) and Los Ulmos 2 (17.7 ha). Soil losses estimated with USLE for the three catchments are higher than those measured in runoff experimental lots under bare soil conditions, which could indicate an overestimation of the LS calculated in GIS and the fact that the USLE model does not compute sediment deposit and storage within the catchment. A statistical significant relation was found between measured and estimated (MUSLE) suspended sediment load, which would indicate that this model could be applied to estimate suspended sediment load from small catchments in southern Chile. KW - suspended sediments KW - USLE KW - MUSLE KW - experimental catchments Y1 - 2011 SN - 0254-0770 VL - 34 IS - 2 SP - 119 EP - 128 PB - Facultad de Ingenieria Universidad del Zulia CY - Maracaibo ER -