In light of increasing terrestrial carbon (C) transport across aquatic boundaries, the mechanisms governing organic carbon (OC) oxidation along terrestrial‐aquatic interfaces are crucial to future climate predictions. Here we investigate the biochemistry, metabolic pathways, and thermodynamics corresponding to OC oxidation in the Columbia River corridor using ultrahigh‐resolution C characterization. We leverage natural vegetative differences to encompass variation in terrestrial C inputs. Our results suggest that decreases in terrestrial C deposition associated with diminished riparian vegetation induce oxidation of physically bound OC. We also find that contrasting metabolic pathways oxidize OC in the presence and absence of vegetation and—in direct conflict with the “priming” concept—that inputs of water‐soluble and thermodynamically favorable terrestrial OC protect bound‐OC from oxidation. In both environments, the most thermodynamically favorable compounds appear to be preferentially oxidized regardless of which OC pool microbiomes metabolize. In turn, we suggest that the extent of riparian vegetation causes sediment microbiomes to locally adapt to oxidize a particular pool of OC but that common thermodynamic principles govern the oxidation of each pool (i.e., water‐soluble or physically bound). Finally, we propose a mechanistic conceptualization of OC oxidation along terrestrial‐aquatic interfaces that can be used to model heterogeneous patterns of OC loss under changing land cover distributions.

Predicting elemental cycles and maintaining water quality under increasing anthropogenic influence requires knowledge of the spatial drivers of river microbiomes. However, understanding of the core microbial processes governing river biogeochemistry is hindered by a lack of genome-resolved functional insights and sampling across multiple rivers. Here we used a community science effort to accelerate the sampling, sequencing and genome-resolved analyses of river microbiomes to create the Genome Resolved Open Watersheds database (GROWdb). GROWdb profiles the identity, distribution, function and expression of microbial genomes across river surface waters covering 90% of United States watersheds. Specifically, GROWdb encompasses microbial lineages from 27 phyla, including novel members from 10 families and 128 genera, and defines the core river microbiome at the genome level. GROWdb analyses coupled to extensive geospatial information reveals local and regional drivers of microbial community structuring, while also presenting foundational hypotheses about ecosystem function. Building on the previously conceived River Continuum Concept¹, we layer on microbial functional trait expression, which suggests that the structure and function of river microbiomes is predictable. We make GROWdb available through various collaborative cyberinfrastructures^2,3, so that it can be widely accessed across disciplines for watershed predictive modelling and microbiome-based management practices.

River corridor metabolomes reflect organic matter (OM) processing that drives aquatic biogeochemical cycles. Recent work highlights the power of ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry for understanding metabolome composition and river corridor metabolism. However, there have been no studies on the global chemogeography of surface water and sediment metabolomes using ultrahigh-resolution techniques. Here, we describe a community science effort from the Worldwide Hydrobiogeochemistry Observation Network for Dynamic River Systems (WHONDRS) consortium to characterize global metabolomes in surface water and sediment that span multiple stream orders and biomes. We describe the distribution of key aspects of metabolomes including elemental groups, chemical classes, indices, and inferred biochemical transformations. We show that metabolomes significantly differ across surface water and sediment and that surface water metabolomes are more rich and variable. We also use inferred biochemical transformations to identify core metabolic processes shared among surface water and sediment. Finally, we observe significant spatial variation in sediment metabolites between rivers in the eastern and western portions of the contiguous United States. Our work not only provides a basis for understanding global patterns in river corridor biogeochemical cycles but also demonstrates that community science endeavors can enable global research projects that are unfeasible with traditional research models.

The Worldwide Hydrobiogeochemistry Observation Network for Dynamic River Systems (WHONDRS) aims to galvanize a global community to provide the scientific basis for improved management of dynamic river corridors. WHONDRS is a global research consortium working to understand connections among dynamic hydrology, biogeochemistry, and microbiology in river corridors from local to global scales.

The parafluvial hyporheic zone combines the heightened biogeochemical and microbial interactions indicative of a hyporheic region with direct atmospheric/terrestrial inputs and the effects of wet–dry cycles. Therefore, understanding biogeochemical cycling and microbial interactions in this ecotone is fundamental to understanding biogeochemical cycling at the aquatic–terrestrial interface and to creating robust hydrobiogeochemical models of dynamic river corridors. We aimed to (i) characterize biogeochemical and microbial differences in the parafluvial hyporheic zone across a small spatial domain (6 lateral meters) that spans a breadth of inundation histories and (ii) examine how parafluvial hyporheic sediments respond to laboratory-simulated re-inundation. Surface sediment was collected at four elevations along transects perpendicular to flow of the Columbia River, eastern WA, USA. The sediments were inundated by the river 0, 13, 127, and 398 days prior to sampling. Spatial variation in environmental variables (organic matter, moisture, nitrate, glucose, % C, % N) and microbial communities (16S and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rRNA gene sequencing, qPCR) were driven by differences in inundation history. Microbial respiration did not differ significantly across inundation histories prior to forced inundation in laboratory incubations. Forced inundation suppressed microbial respiration across all histories, but the degree of suppression was dramatically different between the sediments saturated and unsaturated at the time of sample collection, indicating a binary threshold response to re-inundation. We present a conceptual model in which irregular hydrologic fluctuations facilitate microbial communities adapted to local conditions and a relatively high flux of CO₂. Upon rewetting, microbial communities are initially suppressed metabolically, which results in lower CO₂ flux rates primarily due to suppression of fungal respiration. Following prolonged inundation, the microbial community adapts to saturation by shifting composition, and the CO₂ flux rebounds to prior levels due to the subsequent change in respiration. Our results indicate that the time between inundation events can push the system into alternate states: we suggest (i) that, above some threshold of inundation interval, re-inundation suppresses respiration to a consistent, low rate and (ii) that, below some inundation interval, re-inundation has a minor effect on respiration. Extending reactive transport models to capture processes that govern such dynamics will provide more robust predictions of river corridor biogeochemical function under altered surface water flow regimes in both managed and natural watersheds.