Tobias Roylands, Robert G. Hilton, Erin L. McClymont, Mark H. Garnett, Guillaume Soulet, Sébastien Klotz, Mathis Degler, Felipe Napoleoni, Caroline Le Bouteiller
{"title":"Probing the exchange of CO2 and O2 in the shallow critical zone during weathering of marl and black shale","authors":"Tobias Roylands, Robert G. Hilton, Erin L. McClymont, Mark H. Garnett, Guillaume Soulet, Sébastien Klotz, Mathis Degler, Felipe Napoleoni, Caroline Le Bouteiller","doi":"10.5194/esurf-12-271-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-271-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Chemical weathering of sedimentary rocks can release carbon dioxide (CO2) and consume oxygen (O2) via the oxidation of petrogenic organic carbon and sulfide minerals. These pathways govern Earth's surface system and climate over geological timescales, but the present-day weathering fluxes and their environmental controls are only partly constrained due to a lack of in situ measurements. Here, we investigate the gaseous exchange of CO2 and O2 during the oxidative weathering of black shales and marls exposed in the French southern Alps. On six field trips over 1 year, we use drilled headspace chambers to measure the CO2 concentrations in the shallow critical zone and quantify CO2 fluxes in real time. Importantly, we develop a new approach to estimate the volume of rock that contributes CO2 to a chamber, and assess effective diffusive gas exchange, by first quantifying the mass of CO2 that is stored in a chamber and connected rock pores. Both rock types are characterized by similar contributing rock volumes and diffusive movement of CO2. However, CO2 emissions differed between the rock types, with yields over rock outcrop surfaces (inferred from the contributing rock volume and the local weathering depths) ranging on average between 73 and 1108 tCkm-2yr-1 for black shales and between 43 and 873 tCkm-2yr-1 for marls over the study period. Having quantified diffusive processes, chamber-based O2 concentration measurements are used to calculate O2 fluxes. The rate of O2 consumption increased with production of CO2, and with increased temperature, with an average O2:CO2 molar ratio of 10:1. If O2 consumption occurs by both rock organic carbon oxidation and carbonate dissolution coupled to sulfide oxidation, either an additional O2 sink needs to be identified or significant export of dissolved inorganic carbon occurs from the weathering zone. Together, our findings refine the tools we have to probe CO2 and O2 exchange in rocks at Earth's surface and shed new light on CO2 and O2 fluxes, their drivers, and the fate of rock-derived carbon.","PeriodicalId":48749,"journal":{"name":"Earth Surface Dynamics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139646612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Xuxu Wu, Jonathan Malarkey, Roberto Fernández, Jaco H. Baas, Ellen Pollard, Daniel R. Parsons
{"title":"Influence of cohesive clay on wave–current ripple dynamics captured in a 3D phase diagram","authors":"Xuxu Wu, Jonathan Malarkey, Roberto Fernández, Jaco H. Baas, Ellen Pollard, Daniel R. Parsons","doi":"10.5194/esurf-12-231-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-231-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Wave–current ripples that develop on seabeds of mixed non-cohesive sand and cohesive clay are commonplace in coastal and estuarine environments. While laboratory research on ripples forming in these types of mixed-bed environments is relatively limited, it has identified deep cleaning, the removal of clay below the ripple troughs, as an important factor controlling ripple development. New large-scale flume experiments seek to address this sparsity in data by considering two wave–current conditions with initial clay content, C0, ranging from 0 % to 18.3 %. The experiments record ripple development and pre- and post-experiment bed clay contents to quantify clay winnowing. The present experiments are combined with previous wave-only, wave–current, and current-only experiments to produce a consistent picture of larger and smaller flatter ripples over a range of wave–current conditions and C0. Specifically, the results reveal a sudden decrease in the ripple steepness for C0 > 10.6 %, likely associated with a decrease in hydraulic conductivity of 3 orders of magnitude. Accompanying the sudden change in steepness is a gradual linear decrease in wavelength with C0 for C0 > 7.4 %. Ultimately, for the highest values of C0, the bed remains flat, but clay winnowing still takes place, albeit at a rate 2 orders of magnitude lower than for rippled beds. For a given flow, the initiation time, when ripples first appear on a flat bed, increases with increasing C0. This, together with the fact that the bed remains flat for the highest values of C0, demonstrates that the threshold of motion increases with C0. The inferred threshold enhancement, and the occurrence of large and small ripples, is used to construct a new three-dimensional phase diagram of bed characteristics involving the wave and current Shields parameters and C0, which has important implications for morphodynamic modelling.","PeriodicalId":48749,"journal":{"name":"Earth Surface Dynamics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139588684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Natalie Barbosa, Johannes Leinauer, Juilson Jubanski, Michael Dietze, Ulrich Münzer, Florian Siegert, Michael Krautblatter
{"title":"Massive sediment pulses triggered by a multi-stage 130 000 m3 alpine cliff fall (Hochvogel, DE–AT)","authors":"Natalie Barbosa, Johannes Leinauer, Juilson Jubanski, Michael Dietze, Ulrich Münzer, Florian Siegert, Michael Krautblatter","doi":"10.5194/esurf-12-249-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-249-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Massive sediment pulses in catchments are a key alpine multi-risk component. Substantial sediment redistribution in alpine catchments frequently causes flooding, river erosion, and landsliding and affects infrastructure such as dam reservoirs as well as aquatic ecosystems and water quality. While systematic rock slope failure inventories have been collected in several countries, the subsequent cascading sediment redistribution is virtually unaccessed. For the first time, this contribution reports the massive sediment redistribution triggered by the multi-stage failure of more than 130 000 m3 from the Hochvogel dolomite peak during the summer of 2016. We applied change detection techniques to seven 3D-coregistered high-resolution true orthophotos and digital surface models (DSMs) obtained through digital aerial photogrammetry later optimized for precise volume calculation in steep terrain. The analysis of seismic information from surrounding stations revealed the temporal evolution of the cliff fall. We identified the proportional contribution of > 600 rockfall events (> 1 m3) from four rock slope catchments with different slope aspects and their volume estimates. In a sediment cascade approach, we evaluated erosion, transport, and deposition from the rock face to the upper channelized erosive debris flow channel, then to the widened dispersive debris flow channel, and finally to the outlet into the braided sediment-supercharged Jochbach river. We observe the decadal flux of more than 400 000 m3 of sediment, characterized by massive sediment waves that (i) exhibit reaction times of 0–4 years in response to a cliff fall sediment input and relaxation times beyond 10 years. The sediment waves (ii) manifest with faster response times of 0–2 years in the upper catchment and over 2 years in the lower catchments. The entire catchment (iii) undergoes a rapid shift from sedimentary (102–103 mm a−1) to massive erosive regimes (102 mm a−1) within single years, and the massive sediment redistribution (iv) shows limited dependency on rainfall frequency and intensity. This study provides generic information on spatial and temporal patterns of massive sediment pulses in highly sediment-charged alpine catchments.","PeriodicalId":48749,"journal":{"name":"Earth Surface Dynamics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139670015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Scaling between volume and runout of rock avalanches explained by a modified Voellmy rheology","authors":"Stefan Hergarten","doi":"10.5194/esurf-12-219-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-219-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Rock avalanches reach considerably greater runout lengths than predicted by Coulomb friction. While it has been known for a long time that runout length increases with volume, explaining the increase qualitatively is still a challenge. In this study, the widely used Voellmy rheology is reinterpreted and modified. Instead of adding a Coulomb friction term and a velocity-dependent term, the modified rheology assigns the two terms to different regimes of velocity. While assuming a transition between Coulomb friction and flow at a given velocity is the simplest approach, a reinterpretation of an existing model for the kinetic energy of random particle motion predicts a dependence of the crossover velocity on the thickness of the rock avalanche. Analytical solutions for a lumped mass on a simple 1D topography reveal the existence of a slope-dominated and a height-dominated regime within the regime of flow. In the slope-dominated regime, the kinetic energy at the foot of the slope depends mainly on the slope angle, while the absolute height relative to the valley floor has little effect, and vice versa. Both regimes can be distinguished by the ratio of a length scale derived from the rheology and the length scale of the topography. Long runout occurs in the height-dominated regime. In combination with empirical relations between volume, thickness, and height, the approach based on the random kinetic energy model reproduces the scaling of runout length with volume observed in nature very well.","PeriodicalId":48749,"journal":{"name":"Earth Surface Dynamics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139558917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lingxiao Gong, Peter van der Beek, Taylor F. Schildgen, Edward R. Sobel, Simone Racano, Apolline Mariotti
{"title":"Drainage rearrangement in an intra-continental mountain belt: A case study from the central South Tian Shan, Kyrgyzstan","authors":"Lingxiao Gong, Peter van der Beek, Taylor F. Schildgen, Edward R. Sobel, Simone Racano, Apolline Mariotti","doi":"10.5194/egusphere-2023-2651","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2651","url":null,"abstract":"<strong>Abstract.</strong> Fluvial drainage patterns in orogenic belts reflect the interaction between tectonics, climate, and lithology. The central South Tian Shan displays a complex fluvial drainage pattern that shifts from longitudinal (flowing parallel to mountain ranges) in the west to transverse (flowing across ranges) in the east. Whether such drainage patterns reflect underlying patterns of tectonic deformation, lithology, climatic changes, or the influence of surface processes within a drainage basin is often unclear. We focus here on the anomalously large Saryjaz catchment of SE Kyrgyzstan, which marks the transition between longitudinal and transverse drainage. We analyse topographic and fluvial metrics including slope, river steepness (<em>k<sub>sn</sub></em>) and the integral proxy <em>χ</em> along the river profile, and map the spatial distribution and characteristics of knickpoints to discern the possible controls on the observed drainage pattern. We discriminate between knickpoints of different origin: tectonic, lithologic, glacial, and those linked to transient waves of incision. We find a series of transient knickpoints in tributaries downstream of a sharp 180ᵒ bend in the main stem of the Saryjaz River, which also marks a striking increase in channel steepness. Both observations indicate accelerated incision along this lower reach of the catchment. Knickpoint elevations decrease downstream, whereas incision depth, <em>χ</em> values of knickpoints (measured from the tributary junctions) and <em>k<sub>sn</sub></em> values and ratios are constant among tributaries. These results suggest that incision is driven “top-down” by a large-magnitude river-capture event rather than “bottom-up” by base-level fall. We estimate an erodibility parameter from <sup>10</sup>Be derived catchment-average denudation rates and use this to estimate the celerity of knickpoints. We find that the knickpoints started retreating at a similar time, between ca. 1.5 and 4.4 Myr ago. Considering the river patterns and the timing constraints, we suggest that this capture event was likely driven by the overfill of Neogene intermontane basins, potentially affected by both tectonic and climate factors.","PeriodicalId":48749,"journal":{"name":"Earth Surface Dynamics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139508548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Davide Tognin, Andrea D'Alpaos, Luigi D'Alpaos, Andrea Rinaldo, Luca Carniello
{"title":"Statistical characterization of erosion and sediment transport mechanics in shallow tidal environments – Part 2: Suspended sediment dynamics","authors":"Davide Tognin, Andrea D'Alpaos, Luigi D'Alpaos, Andrea Rinaldo, Luca Carniello","doi":"10.5194/esurf-12-201-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-201-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. A proper understanding of sediment resuspension and transport processes is key to the morphodynamics of shallow tidal environments. However, a complete spatial and temporal coverage of suspended sediment concentration (SSC) to describe these processes is hardly available, preventing the effective representation of depositional dynamics in long-term modelling approaches. Through aiming to couple erosion and deposition dynamics in a unique synthetic theoretical framework, we here investigate SSC dynamics, following a similar approach to that adopted for erosion (D'Alpaos et al., 2024). The analysis with the peak-over-threshold theory of SSC time series computed using a fully coupled, bi-dimensional model allows us to identify interarrival times, intensities, and durations of over-threshold events and test the hypothesis of modelling SSC dynamics as a Poisson process. The effects of morphological modifications on spatial and temporal SSC patterns are investigated in the Venice Lagoon, for which several historical configurations in the last 4 centuries are available. Our results show that, similar to erosion events, SSC can be modelled as a marked Poisson process in the intertidal flats for all the analysed morphological lagoon configurations because exponentially distributed random variables describe over-threshold events well. Although erosion and resuspension are intimately intertwined, erosion alone does not suffice to describe also SSC because of the non-local dynamics due to advection and dispersion processes. The statistical characterization of SSC events completes the framework introduced for erosion mechanics, and together, they represent a promising tool to generate synthetic, yet realistic, time series of shear stress and SSC for the long-term modelling of tidal environments.","PeriodicalId":48749,"journal":{"name":"Earth Surface Dynamics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139497341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hao Chen, Xianyan Wang, Yanyan Yu, Huayu Lu, Ronald Van Balen
{"title":"Past anthropogenic land use change caused a regime shift of the fluvial response to Holocene climate change in the Chinese Loess Plateau","authors":"Hao Chen, Xianyan Wang, Yanyan Yu, Huayu Lu, Ronald Van Balen","doi":"10.5194/esurf-12-163-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-163-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. The Wei River catchment in the southern part of the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) is one of the centers of the agricultural revolution in China. The area has experienced intense land use changes since ∼6000 BCE, which makes it an ideal place to study the response of fluvial systems to past anthropogenic land cover change (ALCC). We apply a numerical landscape evolution model that combines the Landlab landscape evolution model with an evapotranspiration model to investigate the direct and indirect effects of ALCC on hydrological and morphological processes in the Wei River catchment since the mid-Holocene. The results show that ALCC has not only led to changes in discharge and sediment load in the catchment but also affected their sensitivity to climate change. When the proportion of agricultural land area exceeded 50 % (around 1000 BCE), the sensitivity of discharge and sediment yield to climate change increased abruptly indicating a regime change in the fluvial catchment. This was associated with a large sediment pulse in the lower reaches. The model simulation results also show a link between human settlement, ALCC and floodplain development: changes in agricultural land use led to downstream sediment accumulation and floodplain development, which in turn resulted in further spatial expansion of agriculture and human settlement.","PeriodicalId":48749,"journal":{"name":"Earth Surface Dynamics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139497491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andrea D'Alpaos, Davide Tognin, Laura Tommasini, Luigi D'Alpaos, Andrea Rinaldo, Luca Carniello
{"title":"Statistical characterization of erosion and sediment transport mechanics in shallow tidal environments – Part 1: Erosion dynamics","authors":"Andrea D'Alpaos, Davide Tognin, Laura Tommasini, Luigi D'Alpaos, Andrea Rinaldo, Luca Carniello","doi":"10.5194/esurf-12-181-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-181-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Reliable descriptions of erosion events are foundational to effective frameworks relevant to the fate of tidal landscape evolution. Besides the rhythmic, predictable action of tidal currents, erosion in shallow tidal environments is strongly influenced by the stochastic wave-induced bottom shear stress (BSS), mainly responsible for sediment resuspension on tidal flats. However, the absence of sufficiently long, measured time series of BSS prevents a direct analysis of the combined tide- and wave-driven erosion dynamics and its proper representation in long-term morphodynamic models. Here we test the hypothesis of describing erosion dynamics in shallow tidal environments as a Poisson process by analysing, with the peak-over-threshold theory, the BSS time series computed using a fully coupled, bi-dimensional numerical model. We perform this analysis on the Venice Lagoon, Italy, taking advantage of several historical surveys done in the last 4 centuries, which allow us to investigate the effects of morphological modifications on spatial and temporal erosion patterns. Our analysis suggests that erosion events on intertidal flats can effectively be modelled as a marked Poisson process in different morphological configurations because the interarrival times, durations, and intensities of the over-threshold exceedances are always well described by exponentially distributed random variables. The resulting statistical characterization allows a straightforward computation of morphological indicators, such as the erosion work, and paves the way for a novel synthetic, yet reliable, approach for the long-term morphodynamic modelling of tidal environments.","PeriodicalId":48749,"journal":{"name":"Earth Surface Dynamics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139497389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Emma L. S. Graf, Hugh D. Sinclair, Mikaël Attal, Boris Gailleton, Basanta Raj Adhikari, Bishnu Raj Baral
{"title":"Geomorphological and hydrological controls on sediment export in earthquake-affected catchments in the Nepal Himalaya","authors":"Emma L. S. Graf, Hugh D. Sinclair, Mikaël Attal, Boris Gailleton, Basanta Raj Adhikari, Bishnu Raj Baral","doi":"10.5194/esurf-12-135-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-135-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Large earthquakes can contribute to mountain growth by building topography but also contribute to mass removal from mountain ranges through widespread mass wasting. On annual to decadal or centennial timescales, large earthquakes also have the potential to significantly alter fluvial sediment dynamics if a significant volume of the sediment generated reaches the fluvial network. In this contribution, we focus on the Melamchi–Indrawati and Bhote Koshi rivers in central Nepal, which have both experienced widespread landsliding associated with the 2015 Gorkha (Nepal) earthquake. Using a time series of high-resolution satellite imagery, we have mapped exposed sediment along the rivers from 2012–2021 to identify zones of active channel deposition and document changes over time. Counter to expectations, we show negligible increases in coarse-sediment accumulation along both river corridors since the Gorkha earthquake. However, an extremely high-concentration flow event on 15 June 2021 caused an approximately 4-fold increase in exposed sediment along a 30 km reach of the channel with up to 12 m of channel aggradation in the Melamchi–Indrawati rivers; this event was localised and did not impact the neighbouring Bhote Koshi catchment. Based on published reports, new helicopter-based photography, and satellite data, we demonstrate that this event was sourced from a localised rainfall event between 4500 and 4800 m and that a significant fraction of the sediment was supplied from sources that were unrelated to the landslides generated by the Gorkha earthquake.","PeriodicalId":48749,"journal":{"name":"Earth Surface Dynamics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139475424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jessica Laible, Guillaume Dramais, Jérôme Le Coz, Blaise Calmel, Benoît Camenen, David J. Topping, William Santini, Gilles Pierrefeu, François Lauters
{"title":"River suspended-sand flux computation with uncertainty estimation, using water samples and high-resolution ADCP measurements","authors":"Jessica Laible, Guillaume Dramais, Jérôme Le Coz, Blaise Calmel, Benoît Camenen, David J. Topping, William Santini, Gilles Pierrefeu, François Lauters","doi":"10.5194/egusphere-2023-2348","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2348","url":null,"abstract":"<strong>Abstract.</strong> Measuring suspended-sand fluxes in rivers remains a scientific challenge due to their high spatial and temporal variability. To capture the vertical and lateral gradients of concentration in the cross section, measurements with point samples are performed. However, the uncertainty related to these measurements is rarely evaluated, as few studies of the major sources of error exist. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop a method determining the cross sectional sand flux and estimating its uncertainty. This SDC (for Sand Discharge Computing) method combines suspended-sand concentrations from point samples with ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) high-resolution depth and velocity measurements. The MAP (for Multitransect Averaged Profile) method allows to obtain an average of several ADCP transects on a regular grid, including the unmeasured areas. The suspended-sand concentrations are integrated vertically by fitting a theoretical exponential suspended-sand profile to the data using Bayesian modelling. The lateral integration is based on the water depth as a proxy for the local bed shear stress to evaluate the bed concentration and sediment diffusion along the river cross-section to evaluate the bed concentration and sediment diffusion along the river cross-section. The estimation of uncertainty combines ISO standards and semi-empirical methods with a Bayesian approach to estimate the uncertainty due to the vertical integration. The new method is applied to data collected in four rivers under various hydro-sedimentary conditions: the Colorado, Rhône, Isère and Amazon Rivers, with computed flux uncertainties ranging between 18 and 32 %. The relative difference between the suspended-sand flux in 21 cases calculated with the proposed SDC method compared to the ISO 4363 method ranges between -16 and +3 %. This method, which comes with a flexible, open-source code, is the first proposing an applicable uncertainty estimation, that could be adapted to other flux computation methods.","PeriodicalId":48749,"journal":{"name":"Earth Surface Dynamics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139424024","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}