Being a major cause of eutrophication and subsequent loss of water quality, the turnover of phosphorus (P) in lake sediments is in need of deeper understanding. A major part of the flux of P to eutrophic lake sediments is organically bound or of biogenic origin. This P is incorporated in a poorly described mixture of autochthonous and allochthonous sediment and forms the primary storage of P available for recycling to the water column, thus regulating lake trophic status. To identify and quantify biogenic sediment P and assess its lability, we analyzed sediment cores from Lake Erken, Sweden, using traditional P fractionation, and in parallel, NaOH extracts were analyzed using 31P NMR. The surface sediments contain orthophosphates (ortho-P) and pyrophosphates (pyro-P), as well as phosphate mono- and diesters. The first group of compounds to disappear with increased sediment depth is pyrophosphate, followed by a steady decline of the different ester compounds. Estimated half-life times of these compound groups are about 10 yr for pyrophosphate and 2 decades for mono- and diesters. Probably, these compounds will be mineralized to ortho-P and is thus potentially available for recycling to the water column, supporting further growth of phytoplankton. In conclusion, 31P NMR is a useful tool to asses the bioavailability of certain P compound groups, and the combination with traditional fractionation techniques makes quantification possible.

Phosphorus (P) binding groups were identified in phytoplankton, settling particles, and sediment profiles by 31 P NMR spectroscopy from the Swedish mesotrophic Lake Erken. The 31 P NMR analysis revealed that polyphosphates and pyrophosphates were abundant in the water column, but rapidly mineralized in the sediment. Orthophosphate monoesters and teichoic acids degraded more slowly than DNA-P, polyphosphates, and P lipids. Humic acids and organic acids from phytoplankton were precipitated from the NaOH extract by acidification and identified by 31 P NMR spectroscopy. The precipitated P was significantly more recalcitrant than the P compound groups remaining in solution, but does not constitute a major sink of P as it did not reach a stable concentration with depth, which indicates that it may eventually be degraded. Since P also precipitated from phytoplankton, the origin of humic-P can not be related solely to allochthonous P.

The composition and abundance of phosphorus extracted by NaOH-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid from anoxic Northwest Baltic Sea sediment was characterized and quantified using solution 31 P nuclear magnetic resonance. Extracts from sediment depths down to 55 cm, representing 85 yr of deposition, contained 18.5 g m 22 orthophosphate. Orthophosphate monoesters, teichoic acid P, microbial P lipids, DNA P, and pyrophosphate corresponded to 6.7, 0.3, 1.1, 3.0, and 0.03 g P m 22 , respectively. The degradability of these compound groups was estimated by their decline in concentration with sediment depth. Pyrophosphate had the shortest half-life (3 yr), followed by microbial P lipids with a half-life of 5 yr, DNA P (8 yr), and orthophosphate monoesters (16 yr). No decline in concentration with sediment depth was observed for orthophosphate or teichoic acid P.

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Phosphorus (P) compounds in three different lake surface sediments were extracted by sequential P extraction and identified by 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (31P NMR) spectroscopy. The extraction procedure primarily discriminates between inorganic P-binding sites but most extraction steps also contained P not reacting (nrP) with the molybdenum complex during P analyses. In all three lakes, the nrP dominated in the NaOH extracts. Nonreactive P from the dystrophic lake was dominated by potentially recalcitrant P groups such as orthophosphate monoesters, while the nrP in the two more productive lakes also contained polyphosphates, pyrophosphate, and organic P groups such as P lipids and DNA-P that may be important in remineralization and recycling to the water column. In addition, polyphosphates showed substantial dynamics in settling seston. The Humic-P pools (P associated with humic acids) showed strong signals of orthophosphate monoesters in all three lakes, which supported the assumption that P-containing humic compounds are indeed recovered in this fraction, although other organic P forms are also present. Thus, in addition to expanding the understanding of which organic P forms that are present in lake sediments, the 31P NMR technique also demonstrated that the chemical extraction procedure may provide some quantification of recalcitrant versus labile organic P forms.