Turbidity, an index of light side‐scattering, depends on the mass concentration of suspended sediment (SS) within water. Turbidity of river water is regulated by the presence of suspended particulate matter and is used to identify visual changes in response to SS. We used data from the New Zealand National River Water Quality Network, to calculate “specific turbidity” (K; turbidity normalised to mass concentration of suspended particulates). Specific turbidity is shown here to be an effective metric to assess the effect of suspended material composition and particle size distribution of suspended particulate matter over different landscape characteristics, and the effect on SS‐turbidity relationships. Of the catchment characteristics considered in our study, specific turbidity was most responsive to lithological factors, and relatively insensitive to land use and soil parameters. Decreasing particle size has a positive linear response to K, attributed to the higher proportion of ultra‐fine particulate material that is generated by certain lithologies, underscoring the lithological influence on K. SS‐turbidity relationships, therefore, vary spatially across New Zealand's national record of water clarity, and K is considered a useful index for inter‐catchment comparison of SS than turbidity alone.

中文翻译：

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浊度与悬浮泥沙浓度和泥沙特性之间关系的国家空间变率研究

浊度是光的侧向散射指标，取决于水中悬浮沉淀物（SS）的质量浓度。悬浮颗粒物的存在可调节河水的浊度，并用于识别对SS的视觉变化。我们使用了来自新西兰国家河流水质网络的数据来计算“比浊度”（K; 浊度标准化为悬浮颗粒的质量浓度）。此处显示的比浊度是评估悬浮物组成和悬浮颗粒物的粒径分布在不同景观特征上的影响以及对SS浊度关系的影响的有效度量。在我们研究中考虑的流域特征中，特定的浊度对岩性因素最敏感，对土地利用和土壤参数相对不敏感。粒度减小对K具有正线性响应，这归因于某些岩性所产生的超细颗粒材料的比例更高，从而突出了岩性对K的影响。因此，SS浊度关系在新西兰全国净水记录中在空间上有所不同，并且K比单独的浊度被认为是SS的流域间比较的有用指标。