CNIC: U.S. - Czech Geomorphologic Study of Soil Erosion, Floodplain Sedimentation, and Agricultural Sustainability over Decadal to Centennial Timescales

University Of Denver, Denver CO

Investigators

Abstract

This project initiates an interdisciplinary research collaboration led by the principal investigator at the University of Denver with partners in the Czech Republic from three institutions. Together they will begin to examine relationships between soil erosion, floodplain sedimentation, and agricultural sustainability over decadal to centennial timescales. Soil erosion is a pressing environmental concern facing 21st century society. Erosion rates in many regions of the United States and throughout the world have been shown to exceed natural rates of soil formation and have been directly linked to declines in agricultural productivity. Most previous work on soil erosion and downstream sedimentation in agricultural landscapes has been conducted using process-based approaches; this work has resulted in a number of models that predict erosion rates reasonably well over timescales of days to years. However, geomorphological theory suggests that these models may not be easily scaled to predict erosion rates over decades to centuries. These longer timescales are important because they correspond with natural rates of soil formation, and for broader impact, because they can inform long-range agricultural land-use management. Project development efforts will engage a U.S. graduate student as part of the U.S.-Czech team for combined field-based data collection, hydrologic and sedimentologic modeling, and geochemical analyses of soils and floodplain sediments. Cooperative research with Czech scientists is essential for several reasons. First, the study area in southern Czech Republic has an agricultural land-use pattern that has persisted since the early medieval era. It represents a unique setting in which to empirically assess erosion rates over decadal to centennial timescales. Collaborators at Czech University of Life Sciences work with land-use managers and property owners in the study region that will make the field component of the project feasible. Second, existing erosion models for these agricultural landscapes have been calibrated over annual timescales by collaborators at Czech Technical University. Third, novel geochemical and chronostratigraphic methods for documenting floodplain sedimentation rates have been developed by the partner from Czech Academy of Sciences' Institute for Inorganic Chemistry. The team assembled for this project is highly-interdisciplinary and has the technical expertise to address fundamental research questions. Preliminary results have the potential to lead to follow-on, longer-term joint research efforts that advance theoretical understanding in geomorphology, spatial science, and land-use dynamics.