Maximum respiration rates in hyporheic zone sediments are primarily constrained by organic carbon concentration and secondarily by organic matter chemistry

Stegen, James C.; Garayburu-Caruso, Vanessa A.; Danczak, Robert E.; Goldman, Amy E.; Renteria, Lupita; Torgeson, Joshua M.; Hager, Jacqueline

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2857-2023

Articles | Volume 20, issue 14

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2857-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2857-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 14

Research article

|

18 Jul 2023

Research article |

| 18 Jul 2023

Maximum respiration rates in hyporheic zone sediments are primarily constrained by organic carbon concentration and secondarily by organic matter chemistry

James C. Stegen, Vanessa A. Garayburu-Caruso, Robert E. Danczak, Amy E. Goldman, Lupita Renteria, Joshua M. Torgeson, and Jacqueline Hager

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2857-2023-supplement

Data sets

WHONDRS Summer 2019 Sampling Campaign: Global River Corridor Sediment FTICR-MS, Dissolved Organic Carbon, Aerobic Respiration, Elemental Composition, Grain Size, Total Nitrogen and Organic Carbon Content, Bacterial Abundance, and Stable Isotopes A. E. Goldman, S. Arnon, E. Bar-Zeev, R. K. Chu, R. E. Danczak, R. A. Daly, D. Delgado, S. Fansler, B. Forbes, V. A. Garayburu-Caruso, E. B. Graham, M. Laan, M. L. McCall, S. McKever, K. F. Patel, H. Ren, L. Renteria, C. T. Resch, K. A. Rod, M. Tfaily, N. Tolic, J. M. Torgeson, J. G. Toyoda, J. Wells, K. Wrighton, J. C. Stegen, and T. W. Consortium https://doi.org/10.15485/1729719

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Short summary

Chemical reactions in river sediments influence how clean the water is and how much greenhouse gas comes out of a river. Our study investigates why some sediments have higher rates of chemical reactions than others. We find that to achieve high rates, sediments need to have two things: only a few different kinds of molecules, but a lot of them. This result spans about 80 rivers such that it could be a general rule, helpful for predicting the future of rivers and our planet.