Seasonality of Rare Earth Element concentrations and fluxes in the Amazon river and its main tributaries

Many studies carried out on the Amazon River illustrate the complex functioning of this river in terms of geochemistry. Concerning the REE, (Sholkovitz and Szymczak 2000) and (Hannigan and Sholkovitz 2001, Gerard et al, 2003) summarized the actual knowledge we have on the Amazon river. In this study we present a 2-year time series on dissolved REE geochemistry in the Amazon River at Óbidos station (S01°56'50", W55°30'40"), which is the ultimate gauging station on the Amazon River upstream from the marine influence and from the three main Amazon River tributaries, The Negro River at Serrinha (S00°28'55", W064°49'48) station, the Solimões River at Manacapuru stations (S03°20'43", W60°33'12") and the Madeira River at Porto Velho (08°44'12", W63°55'13"), and the Curuaí floodplain, one of the largest várzea located in between Manaus and Óbidos. REE concentrations were measured by ICP-MS in LMTG Laboratory (France). The main results are: -a substantial seasonal variation in REE concentrations that is correlated with discharge. This variation repeats itself from yaer to year, and is also reflected in a compilation of literature data that reflects different years and dates of sampling; - an absence of seasonal variation in REE patterns and Ce* anomalies; - a monthly weighted annual Nd flux to the surface Atlantic Ocean of 607 ± 43 T.yr-1, which is at least 1.6 times larger than the currently used estimate based on one single measurement during the low water stage. A mass balance of the major tributaries shows quasi-conservative behavior of the LREE and an excess of observed HREE during the high water stage. Additional observations are necessary to see if this feature is recurrent or whether it reflects inherent organizational and analytical difficulties involved in the monthly sampling of all Amazonian rivers. Persistence of such a HREE excess requires a source such as suspended matter sorbed REE that transfer to the dissolved phase at tributary confluences or during passage through the adjacent floodplain lakes of the Amazon. This hypothesis is qualitatively supported by the observation that during the high water and falling water stage the floodplain exit waters display higher REE concentrations than Amazon mainstem.