Siltation of a small reservoir under climatic changes and urbanization of its water catchment basin (the Popovsky pond, Kursk)

The rates of erosion-accumulation processes were estimated and the contribution of various sediment sources was identified for the catchment of the actually drained Popovsky Pond, located in the northern outskirts of Kursk. The rates of sediment accumulation in the pond and dry valley bottoms over two time intervals were determined using ¹³⁷Cs of Chernobyl and global origin as a tracer. Fatty acids were for the first time used in Russia as tracers to assess the contribution of various sediment sources. It was established that 97–98% of sediment accumulated in the bottom of the pond came from the catchment in the period of 1964–1986, and the denudation rate in the catchment area was 1,7 mm/year. Sediment yield from the pond catchment was minimal after 1986 until it was drained in 2010. A sharp decrease in sediment yield results from higher air temperatures in the winter months after 1986, which led to a decrease in the frozen soil depth and an almost complete cessation of surface water runoff and erosion during spring snowmelt. Landuse changes in the catchment area with a significant reduction of arable lands and an increase of urban areas, especially since the late 1990s, was an additional, but less significant factor. It has been established that the sediments eroded from the arable lands were the main source of pond siltation. They account for 50% of the total sediments accumulated in the pond. At least 18% of bottom sediments are produced by gully erosion. Moreover, the actual contribution of gully erosion may be even higher. This is due to the fact that the use of fatty acids as tracers makes it impossible to reliably separate sediments which were formed due the gully erosion under the forest and between the forest and the apple orchard from the sediments which were formed due to soil erosion in the garden and in the forest.

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