Seasonal variability of fluvial organic carbon composition between 2016-2018 in the Río Bermejo, Argentina

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. To document distinct sources of particulate organic carbon (POC) to the Río Bermejo, we collected 15 soil and 13 leaf litter samples from the local floodplain, and 10 bedrock (predominantly outcroppings of fine-grained sedimentary bedrock) and 2 soil samples from the Río Bermejo headwaters. 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. Leaf litter and soil were oven-dried at 40°C for >48 hours. We shredded leaf litter in an industrial blender, homogenized soil samples in an agate mortar and manually removed root and plant debris >1 cm, and pulverized bedrock samples to <63 µm. Geochemical and grain size analyses required 0.8 g sediment; for samples 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, doi:10.1111/j.1751-908X.2007.00864.x)). 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, doi:10.1017/S003382220005637X); McIntyre et al. (2017, doi:10.1017/RDC.2016.68)). 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. This 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.