Our research group is trying to estimate the quantity of sediment blowing off of cultivated fields during the winter in the Canadian Prairie region. It is a common-held belief that this sediment is a significant loss of soil from farm fields and a major source of sediment and associated nutrients being delivered to adjacent field boundaries, to roadside ditches in particular. It is a very conspicuous phenomenon, but the magnitude of sediment transport is being questioned. Our plan is to collect the dirty snow (referred to a “snirt” in this region) in one-meter-wide strips extending out from the field boundaries into the adjacent ditches. We have only found reference to one other study trying to make such measurements, and it was a small study carried out in this region about 15 years ago. Any information of advice would be appreciated.
You might look at some studies done by the USGS in Colorado, by Rich Reynolds, Todd Hinckley and Marith Reheis. They've looked at long range dust tansport and tied it back to source areas as far away as China in some cases. There is a range of methods used - I like Marith Reheis' study which involved pie plates and marbles, mounted on fence posts and collected periodically throughout the year. Dust gets trapped between the marbles, which are easily washed and reused. Todd Hinkley took snow samples and melted them to collect the particualte matter trapped over the winter. Rich Reynolds has many pubs on the subject: https://profile.usgs.gov/rreynolds
In Brazil snow is rare, just in some places and in small quantity, then I never had worked with sediment transport by snow.
Regards
J Ramon Cantalice
I echo Lisa. In particular, this publication in Harland Goldstein's profile looks quite useful.
Conference Paper: Start | Author Index | View Uploaded Presentations | Meeting Information DUST DEPOSITED ON COLORADO SNOW COVER: EFFECTS, COMPOSITIONS, AND CONNECTIONS TO DUST-SOURCE AREAS
Article: Composition of dust deposited to snow cover in the Wasatch Range (Utah, USA): Controls on radiative properties of snow cover and comparison to some dust-source sediments
In order to look at more local effects, such as relations between area of snow-cover & the amount of sediment in the snow, it might be worth to make a few Sarre traps, similar to those used to measure sand transport on beaches.
Perhaps snow Sarre traps should be taller with some guy ropes to hold them still... But actual measurements of transport rates and more detailed analyses of causes for the dust/sand content would be very interesting to see.
Admittedly, it could be rather cold work to collect a good dataset. Those traps need emptying out regularly (10 min- 2 hours on the beach). Let me know if you need a few more suggestions along this line.
Good luck
Dear David
I recommend the work of Summer et al. (1998) which explain calculation of amount of erossion by snow
link: https://books.google.de/books?id=-0TSyVTkVDMC&pg=PA338&lpg=PA338&dq=transport+of+sediment+with+snow+calculation&source=bl&ots=rzfrX5RCgl&sig=rijzMqdH9Ypl6lL778H38VXK5Ik&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAWoVChMItY-ShNm2xwIVy-sUCh1_QgR0#v=onepage&q=transport%20of%20sediment%20with%20snow%20calculation&f=false
Similar methods of calculation suggested by Mazzolani (2010) by the study at first a comprehensive discussion was presented
link: https://books.google.de/books?id=YU7LBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=transport+of+sediment+with+snow+calculation&source=bl&ots=zPYRDzMonY&sig=nV4_srh1kqaWVnUBsFTPNmNRge0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC4Q6AEwA2oVChMItY-ShNm2xwIVy-sUCh1_QgR0#v=onepage&q=transport%20of%20sediment%20with%20snow%20calculation&f=false
The other reference that you can use for calculating of transportation of sediment by snow is related to Singh et al. (2011)
link: https://books.google.de/books?id=tl2oKpXE0cMC&pg=PA920&lpg=PA920&dq=transport+of+sediment+with+snow+calculation&source=bl&ots=yodYYzT3cO&sig=5hP1x200QMNCg-Tr2DaSzYoOudM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAmoVChMItY-ShNm2xwIVy-sUCh1_QgR0#v=onepage&q=transport%20of%20sediment%20with%20snow%20calculation&f=false
Regards
Massih
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