Global suspended sediment and water discharge dynamics between 1960 and 2010: Continental trends and intra-basin sensitivity

• New version of the WBMsed global hydrology model introduces a floodplain component.
• Considerable improvement in daily suspended sediment flux predictions is reported.
• Intra-basin precip. dynamics explain differences between sediment and water discharge.
• Intra-basin lithology and relief distribution can enhance or dampen precip. dynamics.

Establishing a quantitative description of global riverine fluxes is one of the main goals of contemporary hydrology and geomorphology. Here we study changes in global riverine water discharge and suspended sediment flux over a 50-year period, 1960–2010, applying a new version of the WBMsed (WBMsed v.2.0) global hydrological water balance model. A new floodplain component is introduced to better represent water and sediment dynamics during periods of overbank discharge. Validated against data from 16 globally distributed stations, WBMsed v.2.0 simulation results show considerable improvement over the original model. Normalized departure from an annual mean is used to quantify spatial and temporal dynamics in both water discharge and sediment flux. Considerable intra-basin variability in both water and sediment discharge is observed for the first time in different regions of the world. Continental-scale analysis shows considerable variability in water and sediment discharge fluctuations both in time and between continents. A correlation analysis between predicted continental suspended sediment and water discharge shows strong correspondence in Australia and Africa (R2 of 0.93 and 0.87 respectively), moderate correlation in North and South America (R2 of 0.64 and 0.73 respectively) and weak correlation in Asia and Europe (R2 of 0.35 and 0.24 respectively). We propose that yearly changes in intra-basin precipitation dynamics explain most of these differences in continental water discharge and suspended sediment correlation. The mechanism proposed and demonstrated here (for the Ganges, Danube and Amazon Rivers) is that regions with high relief and soft lithology will amplify the effect of higher than average precipitation by producing an increase in sediment yield that greatly exceeds increase in water discharge.