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Over the past 50 years rivers have discharged about 18×10⁹ t of sediment annually to the global ocean, mountainous rivers with small drainage basins playing a particularly key role. Mean annual values, however, often mask short- and longer term variations resulting from climatic and anthropogenic factors. Discharge from large rivers generally displays relatively little inter-annual variation, whereas long-term discharge and sediment delivery from smaller rivers often are determined by infrequent events. The lack of adequate monitoring unfortunately means that these event-driven deliveries to the coastal ocean are usually poorly documented and the magnitude of their impact often insufficiently understood. The Salinas River provides one example of the natural and anthropogenic variability occurring in small river systems, as well as the problems associated with understanding sediment transport and discharge …