Bjørn Nyberg

The Global Distribution of Rivers to Terrestrial Sinks: its Spatial and Temporal Control on Alluvial Systems

An important component in the spatial and temporal discharge of sediment to oceans is terrestrial sedimentary sinks that act as buffers and sequestrate sediments and nutrients along its river route. The implications of which have a wide range of importance including shaping landscapes, mountain building processes, water-atmosphere interactions, biochemical cycles, ecological and biological influences, water resources and socio-economic concern. However, to our knowledge, a global catchment model depicting the drainage patterns of modern rivers to terrestrial sedimentary basins does not currently exist.

Here we propose a new global terrestrial sink catchment (GTSC) database that delineates the distribution of high-resolution global river networks in relation to mapped modern terrestrial sedimentary basins. The results show that the morphology of source catchments contributing to its terrestrial sedimentary basin is different by tectonic regimes. Distinctions in catchment characteristics influence system response to change, terrestrial sediment transit times and along strike variability in sink composition of alluvial systems. Furthermore, the distribution and character of source catchments has a direct influence on human settlement and regulation practices of water resources.