Some information on the physicochemical properties of the soils at the reference and tran sect sites are presented on Table 1The pH is essentially basic with a low coecient of variationreflecting the fact that the Na Borges basin is underlain carbonate rocksHoweverpH values are higher in the agricultural areas than in the garrigue areasOrganic mater content varied widely(cv 406) wereas expectedon uncultivated natural slopessince under natural conditions there is more organicmatterThe soil textures also varied substantiallyalthough it was not possible to establish a clear relationship between soil textures and land use from the selected slope transectsNeverthelessthe most characteristic soil texture in the Na Borges basin is siltyclay loam (DiazPalmer et a12006)Stoniness clearly reflects the intense agricultural activity on the slopes of the Na Borges basinThe presence of stone pavements and the abundance of coarse soil fractions provide an indication of ploughing intensity
The depth distributions of 13 Cs activity and the total inventories for the reference profiles sampled are presented in Table 2 and Fig5The measured" Cs concentrations(Bqkg)for each 3 cm depm increment were converted into activities per unit area fBqm~)Because the composite sectioned cores were made up of five separate cores at each reference siteit was necessary to multiply the measured concentration by the total sample weight for the