Effects of Suburban Land Use on Phosphorus Fractions and Speciation in the Upper Peruque Creek, Eastern Missouri

Abstract

This field study was conducted to explore the spatial and seasonal changes in total phosphorus and fraction distribution in relation to land uses. Water samples were collected biweekly at four sampling locations, which represented different potential phosphorus sources along the Upper Peruque Creek in Eastern Missouri. Total phosphorus concentrations of .0.8 mg/L appeared sporadically at site 2, downstream of a small community, with an average of 0.82 6 0.14 mg/L in fall. Particulate phosphorus accounted for approximately 80% of total phosphorus at all sampling sites, except for site 2, where approximately 50 to 75% of dissolved phosphorus was often observed. Approximately 71 and 85% of total phosphorus in the sediment was in the form of iron(III) phosphate at the headwaters and downstream sites, respectively; 29 and 15% was in the form of phytic acid at the two sites. Land uses affect the total phosphorus concentration and alternate phosphorus fraction and speciation in the creek. Water Environ. Res., 80, 316 (2008).

Organic phosphorus in the aquatic environment

“…In the last decade inositol phosphates have mostly been identified in sediments using 31 P NMR spectroscopy on NaOH-EDTA sediment extracts; although there has been at least one study that used XANES. [13] Interestingly, in one study, inositol phosphates could be detected using high field mass spectroscopy, but not 31 P NMR spectroscopy. [68] Relative to sediments, there have been far fewer studies of inositol phosphates in the water column.…”

“…De Groot and Golterman [64] estimated that inositol phosphates represented between 3 and 22.5 % (mean ¼ 11.5 %) of the total sedimentary P in sediments of the Camarge, whereas Keller et al, [13] using XANES spectroscopy, found that inositol phosphates accounted for 15 and 29 % of the total P in two sediment samples from a creek in the upper reaches of the Mississippi River; however much lower concentrations have been found elsewhere. For example both Turner and Newman [73] and Cheesman et al [74] were unable to detect IHPs in a series of natural and constructed Florida wetlands.…”

“…[8] This is notwithstanding the fact that the most common colourimetric assay used for filterable reactive P quantification (the molybdenum blue technique) may also hydrolyse several known organic compounds [9] (although this has been questioned). [10] At the other end of the spectrum researchers have used several sophisticated (and expensive) instruments to explore organic P speciation including ultra-high field mass spectrometry, [11] X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy [12,13] (which requires a source of synchrotron radiation), and solution and solid state 31 P NMR spectroscopy. [14] Of these more sophisticated approaches, based on the number of publications, solution 31 P NMR spectroscopy appears to have been the most influential.…”