Distribution characteristics of organic phosphorus in sediments from Lake Hulun, China

The amount of organic phosphorus (OP) and its distribution among different pools in lake sediments depend on biotic and abiotic processes driving OP fractionation. The key abiotic factors governing these transformation processes between different OP fractions in sediments were studied on the basis of distribution characteristics of OP pools in sediments from Lake Hulun (HLH). The results showed the order of the size of OP pools in the surface sediments from Lake Hulun to be: Re-OP (residual OP) ≫ FAOP (fulvic acid fraction) ≥ HCl-OP (OP extracted by HCl) > HAOP (humic acid fraction) ≫ LOP (labile OP); lower concentrations of LOP were found in lake surface sediments with high pH (pH > 9) of lake overlying water indicating a governing role of pH in LOP degradation in an aquatic environment. The pattern of total OP (TOP) spatial distribution showed an obvious decreasing trend from the west to the east lake districts in surface sediments from HLH, which was attributed to the inputs of dust and dry grass driven by the prevailing wind and the finer grain size in the west lake districts. However, the spatial distribution pattern of dissolved OP (DOP) in overlying water, which presented different trends with TOP and total organic carbon (TOC) in surface sediments, indicated that the biological factors and terrestrial inputs showed a joint influence on DOP distribution in HLH. The higher levels of Re-OP and lower levels of HCl-OP observed in HLH may reveal that calcium ions and their minerals were the key governing factors of OP fractionation in sediments from HLH. This work revealed the main abiotic process or mechanism driving OP fractionation in the aquatic environment helping to understand the geochemical information archived in OP pools in lake sediments.