To monitor the effects of rapid changes in climate and land use on sediment export from erodible environments, it is crucial to accurately quantify highly fluctuating suspended sediment concentrations (SSCs) in contrasted river systems that drain small to mesoscale catchments. To this end, we investigate the turbidity-based quantification of SSCs in the range of 0.05–100 g/L through laboratory experiments performed with 7 different types of turbidity sensors and sediments from 10 watersheds. We find that measurements of scattered light from multiple angles may allow for: (1) an extended monitoring range with SSCs up to 10–100 g/L, where enhanced uncertainty may occur near the transition in the effective operational ranges of the underlying signals (typically somewhere in the range of 1–10 g/L); and/or (2) a slightly reduced sensitivity to sediment properties. The specific turbidity of the investigated sensors is inversely related to particle diameter (D10) for SSCs up to 1–5 g/L. Backscatter and combined-signal sensors also show a dependency on sediment colour (CIE a∗), which becomes particularly prominent at SSCs above 10 g/L. We relate this increase in colour dependency with SSC to the expected effect of cumulative near-infrared light absorption associated with multiple scattering. We discuss covarying physical properties of naturally occurring river sediment that can dampen or enhance measurement sensitivity and result in turbidity-based SSC rating curves that may strongly differ in magnitude and form from curves derived for industrially prepared material that is often used for sensor calibration. Although the differences in SSC per sensor among sediment types are generally less than one order of magnitude, the systematic errors and uncertainties associated with high SSCs are typically greater than one order of magnitude and may disproportionally affect the quantification of sediment loads during large-magnitude flow events.
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