Rapid changes to global river suspended sediment flux by humans

Dethier, Evan N.; Renshaw, Carl E.; Magilligan, Francis J.

doi:10.1126/science.abn7980

Cited by 112 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 50 publications

(48 reference statements)

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“…Using satellites to sample mining-affected and reference rivers After delineating transects on mining-affected and reference rivers, we used Google Earth Engine 67 to split each transect into 2-km-long reaches, then sampled the cloud-, shadow-, and snow-free river pixels from each USGS Surface Re ectance L2T Product image in the Landsat 5 and 7 record (here simply called the "satellite record") from 1984-2021 (endpoint years inclusive) 6,17,69 . River transects had an average of 595 unique days of images (min: 73, max: 2382) (Extended Data Fig.…”

Section: Mapping Mining Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite localized efforts to reduce environmental impacts 5 , we nd that a global mining boom has occurred in the past two decades with only limited mitigation of environmental consequences. The widespread release of sediment from river mines is a major contributor to documented changes to river suspended sediment transport across the tropics 6 , part of a global freshwater crisis 7 .…”

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confidence: 99%

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The global crisis of mining in tropical rivers

Dethier

Silman

Leiva

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Rapidly increasing mining in rivers across the global tropics has major, interrelated consequences for ecosystems and human health. River mining involves intensive excavation and sediment processing in river corridors, altering river form and releasing excess sediment to river waters. Contaminants such as mercury and cyanide are used in some operations and are also released to the environment. Although river mining has been investigated at local and regional scales, no global synthesis of its physical footprint and impacts on hydrologic systems exists, so its full environmental consequences are not known. We assemble and analyze a 37 yr satellite database showing that river mining is pervasive globally. We identify 381 mining districts in 49 countries, concentrated in tropical waterways that are almost universally degraded. Of 173 mining-affected rivers, 80% have suspended sediment concentrations double pre-mining levels. In countries where mining affects large (>50 m wide) rivers, 23 ± 19% of large river length is altered by mining-derived sediment, a globe-spanning effect representing 5–7% of all large tropical river reaches. Mining intensity has rapidly increased during 21st-century global financial insecurity and rising demand for precious minerals. The ubiquity and intensity of mining degradation in tropical river systems is a global crisis.

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Section: Mapping Mining Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

The global crisis of mining in tropical rivers

Dethier

Silman

Leiva

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…At a river basin scale, soil erosion threatens food, water, and energy security due to the loss of productive soil and nutrients from hillslopes, pollution of downstream water bodies by sediment and contaminants (Ivanov et al, 2021), and siltation of hydropower dams and reservoirs (Hasholt et al, 2000;Syvitski et al, 2022). The challenges of sediment dynamics are becoming increasingly pressing with population growth, agricultural expansion, and climate change (Dethier et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precise sediment flux assessment of a small ungauged low-mountain catchment in the North Caucasus

Tsyplenkov

Kharchenko

Uspensky

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Soil erosion and sediment export from hillslopes are significant problems associated with agriculture, especially in parts of the world where society is already living in extreme environments. In particular, mountainous environments remain severely understudied, with only a few runoff and sediment transport measurements available. It is necessary, therefore, to develop and validate independent methods that do not rely on long-term observations at gauging stations. Here we used three independent methods to predict soil erosion and associated sediment yield (SY) from a 1.84 km² basin in the North Caucasus. The first part concerns assessing the sedimentation rate, which was made using in-situ measurements of volumetric sediment deposition rates. Secondly, we look at the connectivity of sediment sources and the lake. A combination of remote sensing data and field surveys was used to estimate sediment connectivity and erosion mapping. The third part regards the computation of soil erosion using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). There are three major findings in this study that help us understand sediment redistribution patterns in mountainous areas. First, based on the lake sedimentation rate, we found that the mean annual area-specific sediment yield is 514 (95% CI, 249–839) t km− 2 yr− 1. Similar results were obtained from the erosion mapping (i.e., a map of erosion processes) — 428 (95% CI, 322–546) t km− 2 yr− 1. Secondly, the spatial distribution and rates of the erosion processes suggest that sheet and rill erosion are responsible for ca. 40% of total sediment export, slides and rockfalls — 18%, while the rest is removed by soil creep. Additionally, the RUSLE-based modelling of sheet wash and rill erosion has highlighted the areas most prone to soil erosion. The corresponding mean annual soil erosion rate of 1.59 mm yr− 1 was very close to the results obtained from the literature review.

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“…In the last decade, sediment delivery in fluvial systems has increased by 215 %, whereas the net export of riverine sediment to the ocean has simultaneously decreased by 49 % (Syvitski et al, 2022), indicating the changing amount of eroded POC mobilized to fluvial systems and the final exported POC mass to the ocean (Stallard, 1998). While land-use change (e.g., soil erosion by agricultural practices) can lead to increasing terrestrial POC input (Syvitski et al, 2022;Dethier et al, 2022;Montgomery, 2007;Quinton et al, 2010), massive sequestration of POC upstream of dams significantly alters the nature and flux of downstream POC (Syvistski et al, 2022;Maavara et al, 2017;Best, 2019;Battin et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MOdern River archivEs of Particulate Organic Carbon: MOREPOC

Calmels²,

Bouchez³

et al. 2022

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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Abstract. Riverine transport of particulate organic carbon (POC) associated with terrigenous solids to the ocean has an important role in the global carbon cycle. To advance our understanding of the source, transport, and fate of fluvial POC from regional to global scales, databases of riverine POC are needed, including elemental and isotope composition data from contrasted river basins in terms of geomorphology, lithology, climate, and anthropogenic pressure. Here, we present a new, open-access, georeferenced, and global database called MOdern River archivEs of Particulate Organic Carbon (MOREPOC) version 1.1, featuring data on POC in suspended particulate matter (SPM) collected at 233 locations across 121 major river systems. This database includes 3546 SPM data entries, among them 3053 with POC content, 3402 with stable carbon isotope (δ13C) values, 2283 with radiocarbon activity (Δ14C) values, 1936 with total nitrogen content, and 299 with an aluminum-to-silicon ratio (Al / Si). The MOREPOC database aims at being used by the Earth system community to build comprehensive and quantitative models for the mobilization, alteration, and fate of terrestrial POC. The database is made available on the Zenodo repository in machine-readable formats as a data table and GIS shapefile at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7055970 (Ke et al., 2022).

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Rapid changes to global river suspended sediment flux by humans

Cited by 112 publications

References 50 publications

The global crisis of mining in tropical rivers

The global crisis of mining in tropical rivers

Precise sediment flux assessment of a small ungauged low-mountain catchment in the North Caucasus

MOdern River archivEs of Particulate Organic Carbon: MOREPOC

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