Global River Sediment Retention on Delta Plains
5 affiliations
- 1Department of Physical Geography Utrecht University Utrecht The Netherlands
- 2Area of Territories and Cities School of Applied Sciences and Engineering EAFIT University Medellin Colombia
- 3INSTAAR University of Colorado Boulder Boulder CO USA
- 4Department of Geography and the Environment University of Alabama Tuscaloosa AL USA
- 5Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Tulane University New Orleans LA USA
Abstract
Fluvial sediments have helped form approximately 830,000 km ² of coastal deltaic land, a large part of which since the Holocene slowdown of global sea‐level rise. The rate at which deltas have retained fluvial sediment to build deltaic land, however, has varied greatly between different deltas. Sources of variability as well as global estimates of sediment retention remain poorly resolved, limiting the assessment of future delta change. Here, we compare delta area and thickness against fluvial sediment supply to derive estimates of delta plain sediment retention for ∼1,700 deltas, representing 93% of the global fluvial sediment supply. We find that 28% ± 14% (standard error of the mean) of the global fluvial sediment discharge is retained on delta plains, totaling 5.8 Gt per year, and equating to roughly 4.3 mm yr ⁻¹ as a global average sedimentation rate. The average delta, however, retains much less, about 4% ± 1%, because many smaller deltas do not retain much sediment. We observe a large difference between active and passive margins, with sediment retention much higher along the latter. Tide‐dominated deltas have the most efficient morphology, and retain 11% ± 4% on average but up to 70% when weighted by sediment flux. This is much higher than the 7% ± 2% and 2% ± 1% retained by river‐ and wave‐dominated deltas, respectively. As larger deltas retain a greater proportion of their supply, this study suggests a positive feedback that enables larger deltas to grow faster than smaller ones.
Versions
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BibTeX
@article{nienhuis2026global,
title = {{Global River Sediment Retention on Delta Plains}},
author = {J. H. Nienhuis and J. F. Paniagua‐Arroyave and F. E. Dunn and S. Cohen and T. E. Törnqvist},
journal = {AGU Advances},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1029/2026av002503},
url = {https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026AV002503},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Global River Sediment Retention on Delta Plains
AU - J. H. Nienhuis
AU - J. F. Paniagua‐Arroyave
AU - F. E. Dunn
AU - S. Cohen
AU - T. E. Törnqvist
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/16
JO - AGU Advances
DO - 10.1029/2026av002503
UR - https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026AV002503
AB - Fluvial sediments have helped form approximately 830,000 km ² of coastal deltaic land, a large part of which since the Holocene slowdown of global sea‐level rise. The rate at which deltas have retained fluvial sediment to build deltaic land, however, has varied greatly between different deltas. Sources of variability as well as global estimates of sediment retention remain poorly resolved, limiting the assessment of future delta change. Here, we compare delta area and thickness against fluvial sediment supply to derive estimates of delta plain sediment retention for ∼1,700 deltas, representing 93% of the global fluvial sediment supply. We find that 28% ± 14% (standard error of the mean) of the global fluvial sediment discharge is retained on delta plains, totaling 5.8 Gt per year, and equating to roughly 4.3 mm yr ⁻¹ as a global average sedimentation rate. The average delta, however, retains much less, about 4% ± 1%, because many smaller deltas do not retain much sediment. We observe a large difference between active and passive margins, with sediment retention much higher along the latter. Tide‐dominated deltas have the most efficient morphology, and retain 11% ± 4% on average but up to 70% when weighted by sediment flux. This is much higher than the 7% ± 2% and 2% ± 1% retained by river‐ and wave‐dominated deltas, respectively. As larger deltas retain a greater proportion of their supply, this study suggests a positive feedback that enables larger deltas to grow faster than smaller ones.
SN - 2576-604X
SN - 2576-604X
ER -