Chemical composition of suspended sediments in World Rivers: New insights from a new database

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present a new database on the chemical composition of suspended matter in World Rivers, together with the associated elemental fluxes. There is a lack of any recent attempt in the literature to update the pioneering work of Martin and Meybeck [Martin, J.-M., Meybeck, M., 1979. Elemental mass balance of material carried by major world rivers. Mar. Chem. 7, 173-206.] and Martin and Whitfield [Martin, J.-M., Whitfield, M., 1983. The significance of the river input of chemical elements to the ocean. Trace metals in sea water Wong, Boyle, Bruland, Burton, Goldberg (Eds) Plenum Publishing Corporation.] regarding the worldwide average major and trace element chemistry of riverine particulate matter. Apart from compiling a new database on particulate matter, this paper also aims to give a "snap-shot" of elemental fluxes for each continent. This approach should allow us to obtain new insights on weathering conditions in different environments and assess the influence of human activities on natural geochemical cycles. Finally, this study demonstrates the large uncertainties currently associated with estimating the flux of sediments transported by rivers. By comparing the riverine suspended sediment fluxes of some metals (Cd, Zn, Ni, Cu, Cr and Pb) given in this study with estimates of the anthropogenic fluxes of these metals to the atmosphere, soils and waters (natural ecosystems) [Nriagu, J.O., 1988. A silent epidemic of environmental poisoning. Environ. Pollut. 50, 139-161.], we can see that riverine fluxes are similar to anthropogenic fluxes. This casts light on the effect of human activities on the cycles of trace elements at the Earth's surface.