Temporal Variability of Sediment Load in the Tonle Sap and Lower Mekong
Rivers, Cambodia
Abstract
The Mekong River, one of the world’s great rivers, is facing the
disruption of its sediment balance with anthropic reductions in its
sediment load and resultant impacts on nutrient fluxes, aquatic ecology
and evolution of its river channel, floodplain and delta. Using
long-term monitoring data from 1993-2018, we estimated the temporal
variability of sediment loads in Tonle Sap and Lower Mekong Rivers in
Cambodia, assessing the sediment linkage between Tonle Sap Lake and
Mekong River, which are connected by a seasonally reversing flow through
the Tonle Sap River. We used data from three monitoring stations
established in Cambodia in 1993, from the Mekong at Kratie (upstream)
downstream to the Mekong at Chroy Changvar (just upstream of the Tonle
Sap confluence), and the Tonle Sap River at Prek Kdam (about 40 km
upstream of the Mekong confluence). We estimated the annual sediment in
the main Mekong River was 72±38 Mt/yr at Kratie and 78±22 Mt/yr at Chroy
Changvar from 1993-2018. Our calculated sediment load for the Lower
Mekong River is lower than reported in older studies (prior to the
2000s), which is consistent with sediment trapping by dams on Upper
Mekong mainstream and major tributaries built since 1993, and consistent
with other recent estimates of sediment load on the Lower Mekong. Our
analysis of water discharge and sediment concentration indicates that
Tonle Sap Lake provided 0.65±0.6 Mt of sediment annually to the Lower
Mekong River from 1995 to 2000. However, since 2001, Tonle Sap Lake has
become a sink for sediment, accumulating an average of 1.35±0.7 Mt
annually. Net storage of sediment in Tonle Sap Lake reduces the annual
sediment transport to the Mekong delta, further compounding the effects
of sediment delivery to the Delta resulting from upstream dam
construction and instream sand mining.