Description: These data were collected from the Río Bermejo in northern Argentina. To determine the seasonal variability in the particulate organic carbon composition of exported river sediment, we collected weekly suspended sediment samples (March 2016 to March 2018) at the Puente Lavalle (PLV) monitoring site, ~870 river km downstream of the mountain front (-25.655°S, -60.130°W). Surface water samples were collected from a bridge using a river-rinsed bucket and were filtered through a 0.22 µm polyethersulfone membrane. Samples were stored on site at ambient temperatures for up to one year, transferred to Germany and subsequently stored at ~4°C until processing. Suspended sediment was rinsed from filters into pre-combusted glass evaporating dishes using ultra-pure (18.2 M) water, oven-dried at 40°C for 〉48 hr, and homogenized in an agate mortar without crushing. Geochemical and grain size analyses required 0.8 g sediment; for samples 〈0.8 g, we combined consecutive weekly samples to create a new bulk sample of 〉0.8 g (Table S1). We split sediment samples into aliquots for grain size analysis via laser diffraction and geochemical analyses. Sediment particle size distributions were measured on ~0.2 g aliquots using a laser diffraction particle size analyzer (Retsch/Horiba LA-950V2). Aliquots for geochemical analyses were ground to 〈63 µm. The homogenized suspended sediment, bedrock, soil and leaf litter aliquots were further split for total nitrogen measurement (TN, wt%) and organic carbon analyses including total organic carbon (TOC, wt%), stable carbon isotope composition (δ13COC), and radiocarbon fraction modern (Fm). We decarbonated the aliquots for POC measurements using a liquid HCl leach following Galy et al., (2007). TOC and TN measurements were split between facilities at the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), Durham University, and University of Nevada Reno (UNR) using an elemental analyzer (EA). δ13COC was measured with a coupled EA-isotope ratio mass spectrometer (EA-IRMS). All isotopic compositions are reported using standard delta (δ) notation in per mil (‰) relative to Vienna PeeDee Belemnite (VPDB). Calibration and accuracy were monitored through analyses of in-house standards (Glutamic Acid, 40.82% C, 9.52% N at Durham; Boden3, HEKATECH at GFZ), which were calibrated against international standards (e.g., USGS 40, USGS 24, IAEA 600, IAEA CH3, IAEA CH7, IAEA N1, IAEA N2). Radiocarbon content was measured for a subset of 29 samples at ETH Zürich using a combined EA and accelerator mass spectrometer (EA-AMS) (Ruff et al. 2010; McIntyre et al., 2017). All 14C /12C ratios are reported as fraction modern (Fm, equivalent to F14C as defined by Reimer et al. (2004)) relative to 95% of the 14C activity of NBS Oxalic Acid II in 1950 (δ13COC = -17.8‰) and normalized to δ13COC = -25‰ of VPDB.\n\nThis geochemical dataset is supported by hydrologic measurements of daily water discharge at the El Colorado gauging station (river km 1086, SNIH, https://snih.hidricosargentina.gob.ar/) collected between 2016 and 2018.

Description: Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Freymond, C. V., Lupker, M., Peterse, F., Haghipour, N., Wacker, L., Filip, F., et al. (2018). Constraining instantaneous fluxes and integrated compositions of fluvially discharged organic matter. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 19, 2453 2462. doi: 10.1029/2018GC007539.

Description: Fluvial export of organic carbon (OC) and burial in ocean sediments comprises an important carbon sink, but fluxes remain poorly constrained, particularly for specific organic components. Here OC and lipid biomarker contents and isotopic characteristics of suspended matter determined in depth profiles across an active channel close to the terminus of the Danube River are used to constrain instantaneous OC and biomarker fluxes and integrated compositions during high to moderate discharges. During high (moderate) discharge, the total Danube exports 8 (7) kg/s OC, 7 (3) g/s higher plant‐derived long‐chain fatty acids (LCFA), 34 (21) g/s short‐chain fatty acids (SCFA), and 0.5 (0.2) g/s soil bacterial membrane lipids (brGDGTs). Integrated stable carbon isotopic compositions were TOC: −28.0 (−27.6)‰, LCFA: −33.5 (−32.8)‰ and Δ14C TOC: −129 (−38)‰, LCFA: −134 (−143)‰, respectively. Such estimates will aid in establishing quantitative links between production, export, and burial of OC from the terrestrial biosphere.

Description: This project was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNF. Grant Number: 200021_140850. F.P. acknowledges funding from NWO‐VENI grant 863.13.016. We thank the sampling crews from both field campaigns (Björn Buggle, James Saenz, Alissa Zuijdgeest, Marilu Tavagna, Stefan Eugen Filip, Silvia Lavinia Filip, Mihai, Clayton Magill, Thomas Blattmann, and Michael Albani), Daniel Montluçon for lab support and Hannah Gies for PCGC work. Figures, tables, and equations can be found in supporting information.