Signature of climate in fluvial suspended sediment records


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Owners: William A. L. Chapman
Type: Resource
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Created: Jul 21, 2022 at 5:39 a.m.
Last updated: Feb 12, 2024 at 6:27 p.m.
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Abstract

Arid regions are often characterized by exceptionally high rates of fluvial sediment transport, but the processes responsible for this apparent connection between climate and sediment transport remain unclear. We examined decades of continuous flow records and suspended sediment concentrations from 71 rivers across the United States by comparing the suspended sediment rating curve behavior, quantified using power law coefficients and exponents, to an aridity index. Results indicate that higher aridity correlates with both greater overall suspended sediment concentration and lower sensitivity of concentration to changes in discharge, demonstrating that rivers in arid locations on average have greater suspended sediment transport efficiency across most discharges, and achieve high transport rates at a relatively lower discharge than rivers in temperate climates. Furthermore, based on additional analyses of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), specific suspended sediment yield, and a hydrograph flashiness index, we attribute the relationships between sediment transport and climate primarily to differences in vegetation density, precipitation, and runoff, variables that all influence both sediment supply and riverbed grain sorting. Finally, we note that the observed contrasts in sediment transport behavior likely represent climate-driven differences in the magnitude and frequency of sediment supply rather than annual suspended sediment load, which does not depend significantly on climate. This study highlights a critical connection between multiple interrelated climatic factors and sediment transport, an important finding for future hazard mitigation in a changing climate with rapidly shifting vegetation patterns and hydrology.

Coverage

Spatial

Coordinate System/Geographic Projection:
WGS 84 EPSG:4326
Coordinate Units:
Decimal degrees
Place/Area Name:
United States (including AK, HI, & PR)
North Latitude
64.2446°
East Longitude
-63.8086°
South Latitude
16.4677°
West Longitude
-160.6641°

Temporal

Start Date: 10/01/1989
End Date: 06/20/2022
Leaflet Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

Content

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Related Resources

This resource is referenced by Chapman, W. A. L., & Finnegan, N. J. (2024). The signature of climate in fluvial suspended sediment records. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 129, e2023JF007429. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JF007429

How to Cite

Chapman, W. A. L., N. Finnegan (2024). Signature of climate in fluvial suspended sediment records, HydroShare, http://www.hydroshare.org/resource/3438171971aa4c8e8127d6dda1bada44

This resource is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC-BY

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