Identifying sources of dissolved organic carbon in agriculturally dominated rivers using radiocarbon age dating: Sacramento-San Joaquín River Basin, California

We used radiocarbon measurements of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to resolve sources of riverine carbon within agriculturally dominated landscapes in California. During 2003 and 2004, average Δ¹⁴C for DOC was -254% o in agricultural drains in the Sacramento-San Joaquín Delta, — 218% o in the San Joaquín River, — 175% o in the California State Water Project and — 152% o in the Sacramento River. The age of bulk DOC transiting the rivers of California's Central Valley is the oldest reported for large rivers and suggests wide-spread loss of soil organic matter caused by agriculture and urbanization. Using DAX 8 adsorbent, we isolated and measured ¹⁴C concentrations in hydrophobic acid fractions (HPOA); river samples showed evidence of bomb-pulse carbon with average Δ¹⁴C of 91 and 76% o for the San Joaquín and Sacramento Rivers, respectively, with older HPOA, — 204% o, observed in agricultural drains. An operationally defined non-HPOA fraction of DOC was observed in the San Joaquín River with seasonally computed Δ¹⁴C values of between — 275 and — 687%o; the source of this aged material was hypothesized to be physically protected organic-matter in high clay-content soils and agrochemicals (i. e., radiocarbon-dead material) applied to farmlands. Mixing models suggest that the Sacramento River contributes about 50% of the DOC load in the California State Water Project, and agricultural drains contribute approximately one-third of the load. In contrast to studies showing stabilization of soil carbon pools within one or two decades following land conversion, sustained loss of soil organic matter, occurring many decades after the initial agricultural-land conversion, was observed in California's Central Valley.