AUTHOR=Bian Kai , Wang Cuiping , Shen Yulong 

TITLE=137Cs inventories in soil in the Qaidam Basin, Tibetan Plateau

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Environmental Science

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-science/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1291707

DOI=10.3389/fenvs.2023.1291707

ISSN=2296-665X

ABSTRACT=<p>This paper presents measurements of cesium-137 (<sup>137</sup>Cs) in the Qaidam Basin during 2019 with 39 soil samples across the landscape. The aim here is to use the results of <sup>137</sup>Cs inventories for the Qaidam Basin to subsequently estimate soil wind erosion. The <sup>137</sup>Cs inventories in the surface soil vary from lower limit detection (LDD) to 1,072 Bq m<sup>−2</sup>, with a mean of 266 Bq m<sup>−2</sup>. Overall, the <sup>137</sup>Cs inventories in the Qaidam Basin decreases from southeast to northwest. The highest <sup>137</sup>Cs inventories was found in farmland, and the lowest was found in Gobi. Wetlands had higher <sup>137</sup>Cs inventories than their neighboring sites.</p>