Rapid barium removal in the Delaware estuary

Abstract

Six profiles of dissolved barium covering the entire salinity range of the Delaware River and Bay estuary from March through September 1996 were collected and analyzed. The profiles are similar to one another in both shape and magnitude except for one attribute. A sudden (≤24 days), nearly complete (>90%) removal of dissolved Ba in midestuary occurs in mid-May followed by an 80% recovery in early June. This removal appears to be temporally and spatially coupled to the end of the spring bloom. Based on such episodic behavior, and on recent work with flocculation of diatom exudates, we conclude that the Ba depletion is caused by barite precipitation in the estuary during the late stages of the bloom. This would imply that lower estuary and inner coastal margin sediments associated with eutrophic estuaries receive a seasonal pulse of barite. The suddenness of this event also implies that sedimentary barite is strongly influenced by high productivity events. Comparison of the riverine Ba concentration with the effective riverine end member after desorptive barium release yields an estimated 30–40 nM Ba available from the suspended sediments as they enter the estuary. This estimate is supported by excess barium in unfiltered samples over filtered samples taken from the river and also by calculations done elsewhere.