Sulfur constituents and cycling in waters, seston, and sediments of an oligotrophic lake

Abstract

Organic and inorganic sulfur constituents in streams, the water column, seston, and sediments of an oligotrophic Adirondack lake were measured for 2 years (1981)(1982)(1983). Soluble organic S constituents (C-bonded S and ester sulfate) were l-18% of total S in streams, the water column, and lake outlet. Seston S (0.3-1.2% dry mass) in South Lake consisted of ester sulfate (44-59%), C-bonded S (32-43%), sulfate (10-l 6%), and nonsulfate inorganic S (~2%). Rates of S deposition measured in sediment traps were highest after spring turnover. The organic matter content (52-81% dry mass) of traps at 5, 8, and 15.5 m showed no significant differences.Net mineralization of seston inputs was 26% based on mass balance calculations, with 43% of the ester sulfate input mineralized. Because most ofthe S input to the sediments was not mineralized, organic S accumulated and constituted the major (74% of total S) S component of the sediment.Most studies of sulfur cycling in freshwater systems have focused on the dynamics of inorganic sulfate and sulfide for which transformations are regulated by redox reactions (Stuiver 1967; Berner 197 1; Cook 198 1). Organic S in freshwater lake sediments has been less studied. Hesse (1958) found that >90% of the total S in the sediments of Lake Victoria was in organic form. Nriagu (1968) found that organic S composed most of the total S in marl deposits and a small amount of total S in sludge sediments in Lake Mendota. Mitchell et al. (198 1,1984) have shown that organic S usually constituted >80% of the total S in the sediments of three New York lakes. King and Klug (1982) found in hypereutrophic Wintergreen Lake sediments, where low redox conditions and high carbon levels would seem to favor pyrite formation, that organic S was still >80% of total S and that pyrite was < 10% oftotal S. Altschuler et al. (1983) found organic S predominant in peat deposits across the Everglades basin and indicated that pyritic S formation in this reduced substrate was dependent on the use of organic S compounds in dissimilatory respiration by S-reducing bacteria. Mitchell et al. (1984) and Landers and Mitchell (unpubl. data) indicated that sed-1 Present address: Department of Forestry, Univ. Illinois, Urbana 6 180 1.iment S constituents and transformations show considerable temporal changes and that 35S as sulfate was rapidly converted into organic forms. For South Lake, on average 50 and 12% of the added 35S was transformed into ester sulfate and refractory S (C-bonded S and pyritic S) and 36% remained as sulfate (Landers and Mitchell unpubl. data). Less than 2% of the 35S was found as reduced, volatile inorganic S in their sediment core experiments. The uptake of 35S as sulfate was also shown to have significant temporal changes and differences among study lakes (Landers and Mitchell unpubl. data).Seston is the major contributor of material to sediments in most lakes. King and Klug (1982) found that seston S was mostly ester sulfate and C-bonded S. This may indicate that sedimented organic S is...

Deposition, burial and sequestration of carbon in an oligotrophic, tropical lake

“…The SAR values found at Lake Alchichica are comparable with those found in other oligotrophic lakes such as South Lake in the Adirondack Mountains (0.2 cm year -1 ; David and Mitchell, 1985), ten lakes in the sub-Arctic region of Quebec (0.075-0.30 cm year -1 , Lucotte et al, 1995), and three deep basin lakes (>70 m depth) in New Zealand (0.14-0.23 cm year -1 ; Trolle et al, 2008). They also fell within the typical range of SAR values estimated by Webb and Webb (1988) for small lakes (0.02-0.3 cm year -1 ).…”

Dissolved organic sulfur in streams draining forested catchments in southern China

“…At the sites with high concentration of dissolved sulfur, DOS accounted for 12.8% to 60.1% of dissolved sulfur which was higher than the values (1% to 18%) in stream waters of the Adirondacks, USA (David and Mitchell, 1985) and the values (12% to 21%) in stream waters of the Rocky Mountains (Mitchell et al, 1986 …”

“…The same standards were used for calibration of the measurements by both ICP-OES and IC to minimize error. Thus DOS concentration (dissolved sulfur minus the sulfate) was obtained (David and Mitchell, 1985;Homann et al, 1990;Mitchell et al, 1986).…”

Variability of sulfur speciation in sediments from Sulejów,Turawa and Siemianówka dam reservoirs (Poland)

“…The main sources of sulfur are weathering of rocks within the catchment area (oxidation of organic sulfur), burning of fossil fuels, and discharge of wastewater containing the sulfate(VI) ion [1,2,[4][5][6]. Sulfur compounds are transported by water primarily through surface runo , penetration from groundwater, and to a lesser extent through precipitation.…”

“…In freshwater lakes, sulfur occurs as oxidized and reduced inorganic and organic compounds [1][2][3]. The main sources of sulfur are weathering of rocks within the catchment area (oxidation of organic sulfur), burning of fossil fuels, and discharge of wastewater containing the sulfate(VI) ion [1,2,[4][5][6].…”