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The Chemical Nature of Phosphorus in Subtropical Lake Sediments

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Abstract

The phosphorus (P) composition of sediment profiles in three subtropical lakes of contrasting trophic state in Florida, USA, was determined by sequential fractionation and solution 31P NMR spectroscopy. Sediment from Lake Annie, an oligo-mesotrophic sinkhole with moderately acidic sediment (pH 5.4; loss on ignition 58 %), contained higher total P concentrations than sediment from eutrophic Lake Okeechobee (pH 7.7, loss on ignition 36 %) and hyper-eutrophic Lake Apopka (pH 7.5, loss on ignition 69 %). The chemical nature of sediment P varied markedly among the three lakes, suggesting the predominance of different diagenetic processes. Lake Okeechobee sediment was dominated by inorganic P, indicating the dominance of abiotic reactions; Lake Annie sediment contained abundant organic P throughout the sediment profile, indicating the importance of organic P stabilization at acidic pH; Lake Apopka contained almost half of its sediment P in microbial biomass, indicating the importance of biotic processes in regulating P dynamics. Solution 31P NMR spectroscopy of NaOH–EDTA extracts revealed that organic P occurred mainly as phosphomonoesters in all lakes. However, sediment from Lake Apopka also contained abundant phosphodiesters and was the only lake to contain detectable concentrations of polyphosphate, perhaps due to a combination of alternating redox conditions and high concentrations of inorganic phosphate and organic carbon. Organic P concentrations determined by sequential fractionation and solution 31P NMR spectroscopy were similar for all lakes when microbial P was included in values for sequential fractionation. We conclude that the chemical nature of sediment P varies markedly depending on trophic state and can provide important information on the dominant processes controlling P cycling in subtropical lakes.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded in part by funded by a grant from the USDA–CREES National Research Initiative (No. 2004-35107-14918). We thank Matt Fisher, Jason Smith, Andrea Albertin, and Kathleen McKee for assistance in the field, and Yu Wang, Jeremy Bright, and Alex Blumenfeld for laboratory support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wetland Biogeochemistry Laboratory, Soil and Water Science Department, University of Florida, 106 Newell Hall, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

    Isabela C. Torres & K. Ramesh Reddy

  2. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, 0843-03092, Apartado, Balboa, Ancon, Republic of Panama

    Benjamin L. Turner

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  1. Isabela C. Torres
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  2. Benjamin L. Turner
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  3. K. Ramesh Reddy
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Correspondence to Benjamin L. Turner.

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Torres, I.C., Turner, B.L. & Ramesh Reddy, K. The Chemical Nature of Phosphorus in Subtropical Lake Sediments. Aquat Geochem 20, 437–457 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10498-014-9228-9

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