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Soil losses or gains were measured in three areas of hummocky terrain by assessing 137Cs redistribution in the landscape. A net export of 16.9, 9.5, and 10.8 t/ha/yr occurred in the three areas. The majority of sites within each area lost soil, with deposition occurring at only 11–17% of the sites. The susceptibility of landform elements to erosion differs depending on the profile curvature, plan curvature, and gradient of a hillslope. The ranking of the landform elements from those with the highest erosion to those with the highest deposition was: convergent shoulders, divergent backslopes, convergent back-slopes, divergent shoulders, divergent foot-slopes, level areas, and convergent foot-slopes. The thickness of the Ah horizon and the depth to calcium carbonate proved to be poor indicators of the erosional status of a soil. Soil loss predictions for the areas from the Universal Soil Loss Equation were 2–9 times lower than the soil loss assessed by I37Cs redistribution methods.
Pennock et al. (Tue,) studied this question.