RC4USCoast: a river chemistry dataset for regional ocean model applications in the US East Coast, Gulf of Mexico, and US West Coast

Abstract

A historical dataset of river chemistry and discharge is presented for 140 monitoring sites along the US East Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and the US West Coast from 1950 to 2022. The dataset, referred to here as River Chemistry for the U.S. Coast (RC4USCoast), is mostly derived from the Water Quality Database of the US Geological Survey (USGS) but also includes river discharge from the USGS's Surface-Water Monthly Statistics for the Nation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. RC4USCoast provides monthly time series as well as long-term averaged monthly climatological patterns for 21 variables including alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon concentration. It is mainly intended as a data product for regional ocean biogeochemical models and carbonate chemistry studies in the US coastal regions. Here we present the method to derive RC4USCoast and briefly describe the rivers' carbonate chemistry patterns. The dataset is publicly available at https://doi.org/10.25921/9jfw-ph50 (Gomez et al., 2022).