Suspended-sediment and bedload-transport rates for the Tanana River near Fairbanks, Alaska, can be related to water discharge, and annual sediment loads can be computed using these relations. For a site at Fairbanks, the annual loads in 1980 were 22.0 million metric tons of suspended sediment and 272,000 metric tons of bedload; in 1981, 27.3 million metric tons of suspended sediment and 333,000 metric tons of bedload passsed the Fairbanks site. Data collected at five other locations within a 40-kilometer reach of the river indicate very similar suspended-sediment-transport relations, but bedload-transport relations varied from site to site and between 1980 and 1981. For all sites bedload is usually 1 to 1.5 percent of suspended-sediment load.

Particle-size distribution for suspended sediment is similar at all six sites. Median particle size is generally in the silt range; only occasionally is it in the very fine sand range.

Median particle size of bedload varied from the gravel range to the medium sand range for five of the six sampling sites in both years. At the sixth site, the farthest downstream location, median particle size of bedload was in the sand range.

Bed material particles were somewhat coarser at the upstream sites than at the downstream sites. Coarser particles dominated the deeper portions of the channels and finer material was predominant on the bars and overflow parts of the channels. Median particle size of bed material was generally in the coarse gravel range, but was in the medium sand range at the farthest downstream site.

Water-surface profiles show that all discharges the water-surface slope was steeper at the upstream sites than at the downstream sites.