Microscale Chemical Features of Sediment-Water Interface in Hongfeng Lake

In situ microscale distributions of O, HS, p H and redox potential in sediments of Hongfeng Lake, SW China, were investigated using the powerful microsensor technique. Our results show that Owas depleted within the top 3.9 mm in surface sediments, and HS was subsequently detected at ~6.0 mm depth, and reached its maximum concentrations at ~25 mm. The degradation of organic matter and reduction of sulfate might be the major pathways of producing HS in sediments. p H rapidly reduced in surface layers mainly due to H+ release in the oxidation of organic matter. Eh also decreased sharply in surface sediments, probabl indicating the coexistence of Fe and Mn oxides with Oin aerobic region. Furthermore, the programme of PROFILE was applied to model the Ogradient, and good fit was obtained between the simulative values and the factual values both in sediments and in the diffusive boundary layer(DBL). The results indicate that the depth-integrated Oconsumption rates within sediments were 0.083 and 0.134 nmol·m·sin site S1 and site S2, respectively. In addition, there were distinct DBL in two sediment profiles, with 1.2 mm thickness in S1 and 0.9 mm thickness in S2. The diffusive fluxes of Owithin the DBL were 67.13 nmol·m-2·sin S1 and 88.54 nmol·m-2·sin S2.