Estuarine Sediments

Abstract

Lucotte and D’Anglejan [327] compared five different methods for the extraction and determination of iron hydroxides and/or associated phosphorus in estuarine particulate matter from the St. Lawrence and Eastmain Rivers estuaries. The extraction reagents examined were citrate-dithionite-bicarbonate, ammonium oxalate-oxalic acid, hydroxylamine hydrochloride, calcium nitrilotriacetic acid, and acetate-tartrate. The procedure using the citrate-dithionite bicarbonate extraction reagent was generally more specific and reproducible than the others. This extraction procedure was included in an extraction sequence which differentiated the exchangeable phosphorus and iron fraction, the iron hydroxides and associated phosphorus, and the organic phosphorus and lithogenous iron.