2.2. The study area
The following criteria were considered for the
choice of the study area: (a) a representative agricultural
area significantly affected by soil erosion; (b)
little contamination by Chernobyl-derived fallout; (c)
availability of potential reference sites. The selected
study site was located near the village of Jaslovske
Bohunice in the hilly loess areas of western Slovakia.
This area was only slightly affected by Chernobyl
fallout and the Chernobyl 137Cs fallout represents
only a small proportion of the total 137Cs inventory
(Moravek et al., 1993).
The characterization of the Jaslovske Bohunice
site confirmed its suitability for the investigation. The
study site is situated in the northern part of the Trnavska
Pahorkatina region (48◦3130 to 48◦3228
northern latitude and 17◦376 to 17◦3757 eastern
longitude), 12 km northeast of Trnava town in
western Slovakia (Fig. 1). The Trnavska Pahorkatina
region is geologically a slightly elevated block of
earth crust that originally formed the bottom of a