La geoquímica de los registros sedimentarios es una herramienta eficiente para la reconstrucción paleo-hidro-climática. Sin embargo, la reconstrucción del clima requiere una buena comprensión de la relación entre la geoquímica, la variabilidad hidrológica y de las fuentes de sedimentos. En este estudio analizamos la relación entre la geoquímica de los sedimentos exportados por el Río Puyango-Tumbes (norte de Perú y sur de Ecuador) y la variabilidad hidrológica. Evidenciamos que la firma isotópica del estroncio (87Sr/86Sr) y del neodimio (εNd) en los sedimentos dependen de la distribución espacial de las precipitaciones tanto estacionales como interanuales, estás últimas asociadas al ENOS (El Niño Oscilación del Sur). Los resultados constituyen un instrumento prometedor para las reconstrucciones paleohidroclimáticas a partir de registros sedimentarios marinos y contin...

In Ecuador and Peru, geochemical information from Pacific coastal rivers is limited and scarce. Here, we present an unedited database of major element concentrations from five HYBAM observatory stations monitored monthly between 4 and 10 years, and the discrete sampling of 23 Andean rivers distributed along the climate gradient of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Pacific coasts. Concentration (C) vs. discharge (Q) relationships of the five monitored basins exhibit a clear dilution behavior for evaporites and/or pyrite solutes, while the solute concentrations delivered by other endmembers are less variable. Spatially, the annual specific fluxes for total dissolved solids (TDS), Ca²⁺, HCO₃, K+, Mg²⁺, and SiO₂ are controlled on the first order by runoff variability, while Cl, Na⁺ and SO₄² are controlled by the occurrence of evaporites and/or pyrite. The entire Pacific basin in Ecu...

The geochemistry of riverine sediments exported to the oceans is important for paleo-hydro-climatic reconstruction. However, climate reconstruction requires a good understanding of the relationship between geochemistry and hydrological variability and sediment sources. In this study, we analyzed the major elements, the strontium‑neodymium radiogenic isotopes signatures (87Sr/86Sr and εNd) and the mineralogy of the suspended particulate matter (SPM) sampled monthly during two hydrologic years (2007–2008, a wet year, and 2010–2011, a normal hydrological year) upstream the Tumbes River outlet. The hydroclimate of this Ecuador-Peru binational basin is particularly sensitive to ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) eventWhile mineralogy (dominated by illite) and the chemical alteration index (from 75 to 82) remain almost constant along the two hydrological years, 87Sr/86Sr (0.7115 to 0....

The dissolved load of the Amazon River is generally considered to be lowlyimpacted by anthropogenic activities. In this work, based on the chemical and hydrologicaldatabase of the Environmental Research Observatory—HYBAM (http://www.ore-hybam.org), we explore the importance of the Peruvian Foreland petroleum activity on the dis-solved Na and Cl fluxes of the Amazon River. The main result of this study allows ussuggesting that oil extraction activity, concentrated in the El Tigre River basin, a small foreland watershed in the Peruvian Amazon, influenced drastically the Na and Cl expor-tation of the Amazon River during the 2006–2007 period. During these years, the dis-solved exportations of this basin represented almost 20 % of the annual dissolved ClAmazon flux and almost 12 % of the annual dissolved Na Amazon flux for a mean annualdischarge\1 % of the Amazon River discharge. Since th...

The erosion and transport of sediments allow us to understand many activities of significance, such as crust evolution, climate change, uplift rates, continental processes, the biogeochemical cycling of pollutants and nutrients. The Amazon basin of Peru has contrasting physiographic and climatic characteristics between the Andean piedmont and the plains and between the north and south of the basin which is why there are 8 gauging stations located along the principal rivers of the Andean piedmont (Marañón, Huallaga, Ucayali) and the plain (Marañón, Tigre, Napo, Ucayali and Amazon rivers). Since 2003, the ORE-Hybam (IRD-SENAMHI-UNALM) observatory has performed out regular measurements at strategic points of the Amazon basin to understand and model the systems, behavior and long-term dynamics. On the Andean piedmont, the suspended yields are governed by a simple model with a relationshi...

Large hydrological systems aggregate compositionally different waters derived from a variety of pathways. In the case of continental‐scale rivers, such aggregation occurs noticeably at confluences between tributaries. Here we explore how such aggregation can affect solute concentration‐discharge (C‐Q) relationships and thus obscure the message carried by these relationships in terms of weathering properties of the Critical Zone. We build up a simple model for tributary mixing to predict the behavior of C‐Q relationships during aggregation. We test a set of predictions made in the context of the largest world's river, the Amazon. In particular, we predict that the C‐Q relationships of the rivers draining heterogeneous catchments should be the most “dilutional” and should display the widest hysteresis loops. To check these predictions, we compute 10 day‐periodicity time ser...

Formation of mountain ranges results from complex coupling between lithospheric deformation, mechanisms linked to subduction and surface processes: weathering, erosion, and climate. Today, erosion of the eastern Andean cordillera and sub-Andean foothills supplies over 99% of the sediment load passing through the Amazon Basin. Denudation rates in the upper Ucayali basin are rapid, favoured by a marked seasonality in this region and extreme precipitation cells above sedimentary strata, uplifted during Neogene times by a still active sub-Andean tectonic thrust. Around 40% of those sediments are trapped in the Ucayali retro-foreland basin system. Recent advances in remote sensing for Amazonian large rivers now allow us to complete the ground hydrological data. In this work, we propose a first estimation of the erosion and sedimentation budget of the Ucayali River catchment, based on spatial ...