Diagenesis of settling seston: identity and transformations of organic phosphorus

Abstract

Solution (31)phosphorus NMR spectroscopy and sequential fractionation were used to follow diagenetic changes in phosphorus forms during decomposition of settling seston in Lake Nordborg, a shallow eutrophic lake in Denmark. In a decomposition experiment, seston released >60% of their total phosphorus during ~50 days incubation, although seston collected during summer contained more phosphorus and released it over a longer period compared to seston collected during spring. Seston decomposition increased concentrations of potentially bioavailable polyphosphate and phosphodiesters, but also promoted the formation of refractory phosphorus forms that might be buried permanently in the sediment. Combining these results with in situ measurements of phosphorus concentrations in lake water and sediment traps revealed that the release from settling seston plays only a minor role in the accumulation of phosphorus in the hypolimnion of Lake Nordborg.