Impact of Humans on the Flux of Terrestrial Sediment to the Global Coastal Ocean

✍ Scribed by Syvitski, J. P. M.

• Book ID: 121374391
• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 477 KB
• Volume: 308
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0036-8075
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1109454

✦ Synopsis

Here we provide global estimates of the seasonal flux of sediment, on a river-by-river basis, under modern and prehuman conditions. Humans have simultaneously increased the sediment transport by global rivers through soil erosion (by 2.3 ± 0.6 billion metric tons per year), yet reduced the flux of sediment reaching the world's coasts (by 1.4 ± 0.3 billion metric tons per year) because of retention within reservoirs. Over 100 billion metric tons of sediment and 1 to 3 billion metric tons of carbon are now sequestered in reservoirs constructed largely within the past 50 years. African and Asian rivers carry a greatly reduced sediment load; Indonesian rivers deliver much more sediment to coastal areas.