Predicting Water, Sediment and Nutrient Flux Dynamics to Global Oceans with a Spatially and Temporally Explicit Modeling Framework

Sagy Cohen, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, United States, Albert Kettner, University of Colorado at Boulder, CSDMS/INSTAAR, Boulder, CO, United States, James P Syvitski, University of Colorado, INSTAAR, Boulder, CO, United States, Emilio Mayorga, Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States and John Harrison, Washington State University Vancouver, School of the Environment, Vancouver, WA, United States
Abstract:
Water, sediment, nutrient and carbon fluxes along river networks have undergone considerable alterations in response to anthropogenic and climatic changes, with significant consequences to infrastructure, agriculture, water security, ecology and geomorphology worldwide. However, in a global setting, these changes in fluvial fluxes and their spatial and temporal characteristics are poorly constrained, due to the limited availability of continuous and long-term observations. Numerical models provide a pathway for alleviating this gap in observational data, offer a framework for developing and testing scientific hypotheses, and can be used as predictive tools. We present the WBMsed model, a spatially and temporally explicit global riverine model. WBMsed estimates water, sediment, nutrient and carbon fluxes at relatively high spatial and temporal resolutions (6 arc-min and daily). The model is used here to study the effect of anthropogenic activity on riverine fluxes to global oceans.
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