Spatial modeling of sediment transfer and identification of sediment sources during snowmelt in an agricultural watershed in boreal climate

Highlights: • Using high-resolution hydrometric data, snowmelt sediment transfer was studied. • Sediment fingerprinting was applied to identify suspended sediment origins. • Cesium-137 and erosion modeling suggested cropland as main source of sediments. • Sediment transfer patterns were complex and varied spatially and temporally. Sediment transfer patterns during snowmelt were studied in a small Finnish agricultural watershed. Erosion rates were high as a consequence of high runoff volumes over saturated soil that partly lacked vegetation cover. Automatic high-frequency monitoring data of sediment and phosphorus concentrations in stream showed a clock-wise hysteresis loop as a dominant pattern. GIS-based modeling of runoff and soil erosion, using LiDAR DTM data, suggested that runoff and erosion mostly came from cropland that had the highest sediment contribution index. Also sediment fingerprinting with Cesium-137 suggested cropland and stream bank were the most important sources of suspended sediments in streams. Because a major part of annual sediment transfer takes place during snowmelt, it is a critical period for annual losses of pollutants. Management practices that minimize springtime sediment and pollutant losses from cropland would be needed to make a marked impact on annual pollution transfer to stream waters.