Carbon Isotopic and Lithologic Constraints on the Sources and Cycling of Inorganic Carbon in Four Large Rivers in China: Yangtze, Yellow, Pearl, and Heilongjiang

Abstract Transport of terrigenous carbon by rivers has been affected extensively by climate change and anthropogenic activities in China over the last few decades. Here, we present results on carbon isotopes ( 13 C, 14 C) of dissolved and particulate inorganic carbon (DIC and PIC) and combined with major lithologic ions measured in the four largest rivers in China, namely, the Yangtze, Yellow, Pearl, and Heilongjiang rivers, to reveal the sources and transport of terrigenous inorganic carbon in the rivers. The DIC concentrations showed large variations in the four rivers and ranged from 253 to 3,122 μM. The Yangtze, Yellow and Pearl rivers transported high DIC contents that had low Δ 14 C values of millennium‐aged DIC and very old PIC; however, the Heilongjiang River presented a lower DIC concentration with much younger 14 C ages than the global average (1,100 μM). The strong correlations between the DIC isotope values and major lithological ions (Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ ) suggest that chemical weathering played important but variable roles in controlling the production and fate of DIC in the rivers. Using dual isotopes and the MixSIAR model, we calculated that the chemical weathering of carbonate rocks contributed 95 ± 5% of the riverine DIC to the headwater of the Yangtze River while silicate rock weathering and riverine organic matter respiration contributed 62 ± 25% and 5 ± 5% of the DIC in the middle and lower reaches of the river, respectively. In contrast, chemical weathering of silicate rocks contributed the dominant fraction of DIC in the Yellow (55 ± 17%), Pearl (61 ± 20%) and Heilongjiang (83 ± 29%) rivers.