East African soil erosion recorded in a 300 year old coral colony from Kenya
East African soil erosion recorded in a 300 year old coral colony from Kenya
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DOI：
10.1029/2006gl028525
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发表时间：
2007-02-22
影响因子：
5.2
通讯作者：
Eggins, Stephen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fleitmann, Dominik;Dunbar, Robert B.;Eggins, Stephen
土壤侵蚀是肯尼亚的一个重要的社会经济和环境问题，由于缺乏长期连续的记录，这一问题的记录很少。在这里，我们目前的Ba/Ca记录从滨珊瑚从马林迪珊瑚礁记录的流量从Sabaki河的悬浮沉积物与次每周决议为过去的300年。虽然沙巴基河的沉积物通量在1700年至1900年之间几乎是恒定的，但自1900年以来，沉积物通量持续上升，首先是由于英国人的定居点，然后是由于人口对土地利用的压力不断增加。1974年至1980年期间，悬浮泥沙负荷达到峰值，土壤侵蚀也达到峰值，与自然水平相比，增加了5至10倍。这是由于人口急剧增加、土地使用不受管制、森林砍伐和1970年代初严重干旱的综合影响。我们的结论是，尽管值得称赞的尝试，煽动土壤保持措施，这是不可能的，将是一个可持续的减少土壤侵蚀没有显着改善社会经济条件。
Soil erosion is a key socio-economic and environmental problem in Kenya, which has been poorly documented due to the lack of long, continuous records. Here we present Ba/Ca records from Porites corals from the Malindi coral reef documenting the flux of suspended sediment from the Sabaki River with a sub-weekly resolution for the last 300 years. While sediment flux from the Sabaki River is almost constant between 1700 and 1900, a continuous rise in sediment flux is observed since 1900, first due to British settlements and afterwards due to steadily increasing demographic pressure on land use. The peak in suspended sediment load and hence soil erosion occurred between 1974 and 1980 when there is a five to tenfold increase relative to natural levels. This is attributed to the combined effects of dramatically increasing population, unregulated land use, deforestation and severe droughts in the early 1970' s. We conclude that despite laudable attempts to instigate soil conservation measures, it is unlikely that there will be a sustainable reduction in soil erosion without a significant improvement in socioeconomic conditions.