Abstract
Purpose
The occurrence of harmful algae blooms has been increasing in large lakes worldwide. The mechanism of heavy metals mobilization in sediments during algae blooms is not well understood. As a major pollutant in the sediments of Taihu Lake, cobalt (Co) has been selected to study heavy metal mobilization during algae blooms.
Materials and methods
Rhizon and HR-Peeper sampling techniques have been used for in situ investigation and indoor simulation experiments to collect information on dissolved Co, manganese (Mn), and UV absorbance at 254 nm (UV254) in sediments. Excitation–emission matrix (EEM) was combined with parallel factor (PARAFAC) to determine the change of dissolved organic matter (DOM) components during algae blooms. The chemical morphology of Co in pore water was analyzed by visual MINTEQ model. The Stern–Volmer model was used to characterize the stability of different DOM components and Co(II).
Results and discussion
Algae blooms significantly increased the dissolved Co concentration in sediments. The release of Co was closely related to DOM in the algae bloom sediments, which was reflected by the similar distribution and significant positive correlation between the dissolved Co and DOM in pore water, during both in situ and laboratory simulation algae blooms experiments. On the other hand, the saturation of oxygen in the sediment–water interface (SWI) rapidly decreased from 100 to 0% during algae blooms, resulting in high mobilization of Co and reduction of Mn oxides in sediments. This was supported by the simultaneous increase of dissolved Co and Mn and significant positive correlation between dissolved Co and Mn in the simulation aerobic–anaerobic sediments. The transformation of most Co(II) into DOM-Co(II) complexes, as calculated by the Visual MINTEQ model, further demonstrated that the mobilization of Co was mainly controlled by the DOM content in the sediments during algae blooms. Further studies revealed that tyrosine-like substance released by algae played a major role in their complexation with Co, possibly due to their relatively high content and high stability after binding Co.
Conclusion
The mobilization of Co in sediments during algae blooms was mainly controlled by DOM through complexation, reflected by the observation that dissolved Co concentration and UV254 increased simultaneously and had significant positive correlation during in situ monitoring and indoor simulations experiments. More than 80% of dissolved Co in the pore water during algae blooms was DOM-Co complexes, supporting this conclusion. It was further observed that tyrosine-like substances played an important role in Co complexation.
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Acknowledgements
We gratefully thank the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant number 2019YFD0901103), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant numbers 41621002 and 41701568), and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant number BK20171518) for their financial support on this study.
Funding
This study was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant number 2019YFD0901100), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant numbers 41621002 and 41701568), and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant number BK20171518).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation‚ data collection and analysis were performed by Yazhou Tang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Yazhou Tang and modified by Musong Chen. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Shiming Ding read and approved the final manuscript.
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Tang, Y., Ding, S., Wu, Y. et al. Mechanism of cobalt migration in lake sediments during algae blooms. J Soils Sediments 21, 3415–3426 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-021-02917-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-021-02917-y