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Sediment Pore Water Dissolved Organic Matter in North Dakota (USA) Prairie Wetlands

Ziegelgruber, Kate Lynn
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1306877243

Abstract Details

2011, Master of Science, Ohio State University, Geological Sciences.
Prairie pothole lakes (PPLs) comprise an important part of the hydrology in the upper Midwest. They are highly diverse aquatic ecosystems that are important habitats for migrating waterfowl. They are also in a heavily farmed region and potentially suffer from nonpoint source pollution from agrochemicals. The dissolved organic matter (DOM) in PPL pore waters are presumably highly reduced due to active sulfate reduction in sediments and can potentially be important in the fate and transformation of agricultural pesticides that enter these aquatic systems via nonpoint source runoff. Sediment pore water DOM was quantified by Pt catalyzed high temperature total organic carbon analysis and characterized as a function of sediment depth using high pressure size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) for molecular weight determination, UV-vis spectroscopy, and fluorescence spectroscopy. Pore water dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations (~61-120 mg C/L) are greater than surface water DOC concentrations (~22-36 mg C/L) and greatly exceed abundances typically reported for wetland pore water samples (10's of mg C/L). The DOM is primarily allochthonous in nature; however autochthonous inputs, especially in samples collected in September, were detected by examining various light absorption spectral parameters i.e., specific UV absorbance at 280nm or (SUVA280) and spectral slope ratio (SR) in addition to fluorophore contributions. This pool of autochthonous organic matter is derived from primary production in the water column during the summer season that is presumably transported to the benthic zone in the fall. Fluorescence excitation emission matrices were examined using Parallel Factor Analysis (PARAFAC) to relatively quantify and identify the fluorophores that comprise the DOM phase. A PARAFAC model was created to model the individual fluorescing components of the pore water DOM. Three “humic-like” components explain ~90% of total sample fluorescence while a single “protein-like” component is a responsible for the remaining ~10%. The contribution of the “protein-like” component was more significant in the top 7 cm of sediment in samples collected in September and is believed to be derived from autochthonous sources i.e., primary productivity in the overlying water. The PARAFAC results corroborate my spectroscopic data regarding changes in pore water DOM composition over the growing season. This research shows that the DOM pool is exceedingly high in PPL pore waters and its composition changes as a function of time. This dynamic process could affect the role that DOM plays in the fate of agriculturally derived pesticides in these aquatic ecosystems.
Yu-Ping Chin, PhD (Advisor)
W. Berry Lyons, PhD (Committee Co-Chair)
James E. Bauer, PhD (Committee Member)
140 p.
Geological
dissolved organic matter; DOM; prairie wetlands; prairie pothole region

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ziegelgruber, K. L. (2011). Sediment Pore Water Dissolved Organic Matter in North Dakota (USA) Prairie Wetlands [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1306877243

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ziegelgruber, Kate. Sediment Pore Water Dissolved Organic Matter in North Dakota (USA) Prairie Wetlands. 2011. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1306877243.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ziegelgruber, Kate. "Sediment Pore Water Dissolved Organic Matter in North Dakota (USA) Prairie Wetlands." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1306877243

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2011, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.