Uptake of alkali and alkaline-earth elements on suspended iron and manganese in the kalix river, northern sweden

Abstract

Scavenging of alkali and alkaline-earth elements by suspended Fe and Mn in the Kalix River, northern Sweden, has been studied for a period of seventeen months. More than 95% (by weight) of suspended nondetrital concentrations of Ca, Mg, and Sr are scavenged on suspended nondetrital Fe throughout all seasons. Barium is correlated to suspended Fe during winter, but during the summer a significant fraction of nondetrital Ba is associated with Mn-rich particles. Porewater profiles for Ca, Mg, and Sr are similar to the dissolved Fe profile, suggesting desorption from a Fe-rich carrier phase. Compared with the river water concentration, Ba is enriched twenty-five times in porewater and shows, together with Mn, a post-depositional subsurface maximum in the solid sediment.The alkali elements Na and K show a linear correlation to suspended nondetrital Fe during the winter. However, the summer concentrations cannot be explained by scavenging onto Fe alone, and sediment and porewater data show no clear association with Fe or Mn.The distribution coefficients for the alkaline-earth elements are two orders of magnitude larger than coefficients obtained for model Fe-oxyhydroxides. This suggests that surface complexation occurs via other functional groups and/or the alkaline-earths are more firmly bound to the natural Fe-rich phase.