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Sulfur vs. silica retention in oligotrophic lake sediments: Test of a simple residence time model

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Abstract

Limnologists have modeled solute retention (% of input) in lake sediments using the parameter: 100 k s {(z:t w +k s}−1, wherek s is an empirical mass transfer coefficient or ‘sedimentation velocity’ (m yr−1), z is lake mean depth (m), andt w is lake hydraulic residence time (yr). This flushing or residence time model was tested against sulfate and silica concentrations in lakes of the northeastern and northcentral U.S.A., using data collected during the U.S. EPA's Eastern Lake Survey. This parameter failed to predict intra-regional variations in lake sulfate at fall turnover, but was consistently negatively correlated with silica in each of the regional lake populations. However, except in the western section of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, lake sulfate was everywhere inversely dependent on DOC [mean slope=−0.020(SE=0.03) meq mM−1]. Sulfur retention in aquatic environments appears more closely coupled to organic carbon and trophic state, than to variations in hydraulic residence time.

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    Robert E. Stauffer

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Stauffer, R.E. Sulfur vs. silica retention in oligotrophic lake sediments: Test of a simple residence time model. Water Air Soil Pollut 81, 373–383 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01104022

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01104022

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