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Selenium Behavior in San Francisco Bay Sediments

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Abstract

Sediment and porewater samples (1997–1999) were collected in the Northern Reach of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta for determinations of sedimentary selenium and its chemical speciation. Total sedimentary selenium increased with depth, with approximately 50% of the sedimentary selenium as elemental selenium and 35% as organic selenide. Porewater total dissolved selenium increased with depth in the estuary and Delta, and fluxes out of the sediments were calculated at 0.01 and 0.06 nmol cm−2 year−1 for the estuary and Delta, respectively. Present-day sediment–water exchange of dissolved selenium and internal transformations cannot explain the observed increase in total sedimentary selenium with depth. However, mass balance calculations demonstrate that the increase in total selenium with depth may be linked to higher dissolved selenium concentrations in the water column in the 1980s, suggesting that the sediments could be used as historical recorders of selenium in the estuary.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Jason Beck and Paul Richardson for ancillary analyses. We also thank the captain of the Research Vessel David Johnson, Robin Stewart, and Sam Luoma for their help in obtaining the sediment cores. Furthermore, we thank Martina Doblin and Lynda Cutter for their invaluable assistance in the field and for generating many of the ancillary data. This project was supported by funds from NSF (grant OCE-9707946) to G. Cutter.

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  1. Shannon Meseck

    Present address: , NOAA/NEMFS 212 Rogers Ave., Milford, CT, 06460, USA

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  1. Department of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, 23529-0276, USA

    Shannon Meseck & Gregory Cutter

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Correspondence to Shannon Meseck.

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Meseck, S., Cutter, G. Selenium Behavior in San Francisco Bay Sediments. Estuaries and Coasts 35, 646–657 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-011-9444-0

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