6533b825fe1ef96bd1283486

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Applying the bootstrap technique for studying soil redistribution by caesium-137 measurements at basin scale

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Abstract The use of the bootstrap technique to estimate the reference level of137 Cs in an uneroded site is tested. The analysis is developed using 137Cs measurements made in a small experimental Sicilian basin. In the reference area the 137Cs activity is normally distributed with a known sample mean value, m equal to 94.4 mBq cm−2. The influence of137 Cs reference site sampling was determined generating samples having a fixed size, N and six different values of the sample coefficient of variation, CV, by a Monte Carlo technique. Then, for each size N, the probability distribution of the mean μ of the sequences generated by Monte Carlo technique is defined. The soil redistribution is determined, both at morphological unit and basin scale, using the proportional method of Martz & de Jong for calculating the net soil loss. The analysis showed that the spatial distribution of the net soil loss E i, and the basin value E b are independent of the sample size, N, and the coefficient of variation, CV, of the sam...