Assessment of the caesium-137 flux adsorbed to suspended sediment in a reservoir in the contaminated Fukushima region in Japan.

We estimated the flux of caesium-137 adsorbed to suspended sediment in the Kusaki Dam reservoir in the Fukushima region of eastern Japan, which was contaminated by the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident. The amount and rate of reservoir sedimentation and the caesium-137 concentration were validated based on the mixed-particle distribution and a sediment transport equation. The caesium-137 and sediment flux data suggested that wash load, suspended load sediment, and caesium-137 were deposited and the discharge and transport processes generated acute pollution, especially during extreme rainfall-runoff events. Additionally, we qualitatively assessed future changes in caesium-137 and sediment fluxes in the reservoir. The higher deposition and discharge at the start of the projection compared to the 2090s are most likely explained by the radioactive decay of caesium-137 and the effects of reservoir sedimentation. Predictions of the impacts of future climate on sediment and caesium-137 fluxes are crucial for environmental planning and management.

Estimating the collapse of aggregated fine soil structure in a mountainous forested catchment.

This paper describes the relationship of forest soil dryness and antecedent rainfall with suspended sediment (SS) yield due to extreme rainfall events and how this relationship affects the survival of forest plants. Several phenomena contribute to this relationship: increasing evaporation (amount of water vapour discharged from soil) due to increasing air temperature, decreasing moisture content in the soil, the collapse of aggregates of fine soil particles, and the resulting effects on forest plants. To clarify the relationships among climate variation, the collapse of soil particle aggregates, and rainfall-runoff processes, a numerical model was developed to reproduce such aggregate collapse in detail. The validity of the numerical model was confirmed by its application to the granitic mountainous catchment of the Nagara River basin in Japan and by comparison with observational data. The simulation suggests that important problems, such as the collapse of forest plants in response to decreases in soil moisture content and antecedent rainfall, will arise if air temperature continues to increase.