The Himalayan foreland basin, manifested as the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) on the surface, has been filling up with sediment, carried by the Himalayan river network. Since 1960, several sediment budget records have been established for this region, estimated by different approaches, and averaged over different time scales. Here, we have compiled 196 records of sediment load, sediment yield, and erosion rate published between 1960 and 2022 for different catchments across the IGP. We categorised the data as long-term (multi-centennial to multi-millennial) and short-term (annual to multi-decadal) records, based on the timescale they are averaged upon. We find that there is a clear gradient of sediment yield across the IGP where long-term sediment yield decreases from ∼5800 t/yr/km² (Sutlej basin) in the west to ∼1200 t/yr/km² (Ganges basin) in the east and the short-term yield decreases from ∼1800 t/yr/km² (Sutlej basin) in the west to ∼100 t/yr/km² (Ganges basin) in the east. Our analysis shows that the driving factors of sediment generation and dispersion vary throughout the region and among the integration timescales. The region south of the Main Frontal Thrust, specifically the IGP, is highly populated and the short-term records suggest an anthropogenic bias. However, we show that only a low but measurable percentage of the annual sediment load is trapped by anthropogenic interventions, such as dams and barrages, when we compare the short- and long-term sediment loads. Among 172 sampled catchments, both short (n = 87) and long-term (n = 60) loads from basins with area >100 km², show nearly log-linear correlation with their respective basin sizes. However, in case of the Ganga-Brahmaputra basin, the slope of the best fit line for the short-term loads is 30% lower compared to long-term loads. The short-term load estimations for the same basin size are consistently lower than the long-term loads. We attribute this discrepancy on the lag in response time of the vast IGP dispersal system. We note that the variability of long-term erosion rates from west to east correspond well (R² = 0.77, n = 6) with the variability of mean normalized channel steepness indices for all major catchments to the south of the Main Frontal Thrust region. To the north of the Main Frontal Thrust, the variation of long-term erosion rates correlates well with channel steepness within a single catchment, but not in a similar fashion across different catchments from west to east. We observe that the linear relationship between long-term erosion rate and channel steepness index for individual basins to the north of the MFT is influenced by the presence of high vegetation density; however, any correlation between long-term erosion rates with mean annual rainfall and vegetation cover is absent. Our analyses suggest that short-term records are more susceptible to vegetation cover changes in steep terrains, but landscape erosion rates at these timescales are also driven by various degrees of landscape steepness. We show that short-term records are influenced by transient sediment storages on the IGP that respond to past tectonic and climatic forcing. This underlines the importance of understanding transient sediment storages when interpreting short-term records in the context of recent climatic changes and anthropogenic impacts.

喜马拉雅前陆盆地，在地表表现为印度恒河平原（IGP），一直被喜马拉雅河网携带的沉积物填满。自 1960 年以来，已经建立了该地区的几个沉积物预算记录，通过不同的方法进行了估算，并在不同的时间尺度上进行了平均。在这里，我们汇总了 196年至 2022 年间针对 IGP 不同流域发布的 196 条泥沙负荷、泥沙产量和侵蚀率记录。我们根据数据的平均时间尺度将数据分类为长期（多百年到多千年）和短期（每年到几十年）记录。我们发现整个 IGP 有明显的产沙量梯度，长期产沙量从 ∼5800 t/yr/km ^2下降西部（Sutlej 盆地）至东部～1200 t/yr/km ²（恒河盆地），短期产量从西部～1800 t/yr/km ²（Sutlej 盆地）下降到～100 t /yr/km ²（恒河盆地）在东部。我们的分析表明，沉积物生成和分散的驱动因素在整个区域和整合时间尺度之间存在差异。主要锋冲断层以南的区域，特别是 IGP，人口稠密，短期记录表明存在人为偏差。然而，当我们比较短期和长期沉积物负荷时，我们发现只有很小但可测量的年度沉积物负荷百分比被人为干预措施所捕获，例如大坝和拦河坝。在 172 个采样流域中，均短 ( n = 87) 和长期 ( n  = 60) 来自面积 >100 km ²的盆地的负荷，显示出与其各自的盆地大小几乎呈对数线性相关。然而，在恒河-布拉马普特拉河流域，短期载荷的最佳拟合线的斜率比长期载荷低 30%。相同流域大小的短期负荷估计值始终低于长期负荷。我们将这种差异归因于庞大的 IGP 分散系统的响应时间滞后。我们注意到从西到东的长期侵蚀速率的变化很好地对应（R ²  = 0.77，n = 6) 与主锋逆冲断层以南的所有主要流域的平均归一化河道陡度指数的变化有关。在主锋逆冲断层以北，长期侵蚀速率的变化与单个流域内的河道陡度有很好的相关性，但在从西到东的不同流域之间则没有类似的关系。我们观察到，MFT 以北各个盆地的长期侵蚀率与河道陡度指数之间的线性关系受到高植被密度的影响；然而，长期侵蚀率与年平均降雨量和植被覆盖之间没有任何相关性。我们的分析表明，短期记录更容易受到陡峭地形植被覆盖变化的影响，但这些时间尺度上的景观侵蚀率也受到不同程度的景观陡峭程度的驱动。我们表明，短期记录受到 IGP 上响应过去构造和气候强迫的瞬态沉积物储存的影响。这强调了在近期气候变化和人为影响的背景下解释短期记录时了解瞬态沉积物储存的重要性。