Cycling of organic carbon (OC) between the lithosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere regulates Earth's climate. Rivers modulate this cycle by redistributing OC from vegetated uplands to sedimentary basins. If fluvially transported OC is preserved during source-to-sink transit, its long-term burial sequesters atmospheric CO 2 over geologic timescales (Berner, 1990;Burdige, 2005;France-Lanord & Derry, 1997). To estimate OC burial fluxes and assess the influence of fluvial transport on the geologic carbon cycle, we need mechanistic explanations of the complex links between the geomorphic and biogeochemical processes driving the sourcing, transport, oxidation, and burial of OC in river systems.Fluvial particulate organic carbon (POC) comprises a mixture of petrogenic POC from organic-rich bedrock (e.g., shale) and biospheric POC from plants and soils (Galy et al., 2015;Rosenheim & Galy, 2012). While petrogenic POC decomposes slowly and can be preserved and recycled through the lithosphere over million-year cycles (Galy, et al., 2008;Scheingross et al., 2019;Sparkes et al., 2020), biospheric POC is physically and chemically unstable at Earth's surface and can be oxidized to CO 2 if not rapidly buried. Biospheric POC can bind