Abstract
The ultimate fate of inorganic phosphorus in natural waters is to a large degree determined by interactions with sediments. The interactions in river bed sediments have been investigated by a combination of methods using surface sediments, <2 mm in diameter, collected from a 55 km stretch of the River Swale in Yorkshire, UK. The sediments were analysed by digestion (Fe, Ca and P), clay mineralogy and their equilibrium phosphate concentration. All the equilibrium phosphate concentrations were below 2 μmol dm−3, which is much less than the concentration in the overlying water and indicates a net uptake of phosphorus by the sediments. Experiments in a fluvarium channel with a coarse sediment also showed that the release and uptake of soluble phosphorus was towards a steady-state concentration in the overlying solution, consistent with measurements of the equilibrium phosphate concentration. A kinetic model describing the net uptake of soluble reactive phosphorus by river sediments was applied to chemical data collected during an intensive monitoring exercise in the catchment. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Published Version
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