Phosphorus sediment sample analysis

Several chemical reactions, including calcium carbonate and hydroxyapatite precipitation, have been studied to determine their relationship to observed water column and sediment phosphorus contents in hard water regions of New York State. Three separate techniques have been used to Identify reactions important in the distribution of phosphorus between the water column and sediments 1) sediment sample analysis employing a variety of selective extraction procedures 2) chemical equilibrium calculations to determine ion activity products for mineral phases involved in phosphorus transport and 3) seeded calcium carbonate crystallization measurements in the presence and absence of phosphate ion. 

Sample Collection, Pretreatment, and Analysis. Sediment-bound phosphorus in the Genesee River was studied by sampling bottom sediment, fine-material washed from bottom sediment, suspended sediment, and water column particulate material at six stations on the river. The sampling program was planned to be synoptic with complete chemical and hydrological parameters recorded at each site. One kilogram surficial sediment samples were collected in midstream at most sites during six field trips... 

This technique has found very limited applications in soil and sediment analysis and is particularly useful when routine automated analyses at the mg L 1 level of large numbers of samples is required. The technique has been applied to the determination of total phosphorus, total organic carbon and total nitrogen in soils, total organic carbon in non-saline sediments and total sulphur in saline sediments. 

Dobolyi and Bidlo [76] determined the phosphorus-containing minerals in Balatien lake sediment, and thus the forms in which the phosphorus responsible for the accelerating eutrophication of the lake are present. Samples were subjected to chemical, electron microscope and X-ray analysis. Hydroxylapatite was identified, but no proof of the presence of other phosphorus minerals was obtained. 

During each analysis, replicates of samples collected in the Genesee River were analyzed as quality-control check samples. The coefficients of variation for total phosphorus analysis of three sediments used as quality-control check samples were 0.12 (n =... 

For many scientists involved in the analysis of phosphorus in water, sediment and soil, the only available techniques depend on the colorimetric determination of molybdate-reactive phosphorus, and that which can be made reactive during a digestion step. Molybdate-reactive phosphorus in filtered samples is generally equated to inor-... 

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