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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 60(7)

Sediment diagenesis and porewater solute fluxes in acidic mine lakes: the impact of dissolved organic carbon additions

Deborah J. Read A , Carolyn E. Oldham A C , Tiina Myllymäki B and Matthias Koschorreck B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Environmental Systems Engineering, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.

B Department of Lake Research, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Brückstrasse 3a 39114 Magdeburg, Germany.

C Corresponding author. Email: carolyn.oldham@uwa.edu.au

Marine and Freshwater Research 60(7) 660-668 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF08080
Submitted: 12 March 2008  Accepted: 20 April 2009   Published: 28 July 2009

Abstract

Sediment diagenesis through microbial sulfate reduction is considered a critical process in the pH amelioration of acidic mine lakes, but is often limited by the availability of organic carbon. Organic substrates are therefore frequently added to mine lake sediments to stimulate sulfate reduction. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was added to sediment collected from three mine lakes, one (in Germany) with typically high concentrations of Fe and SO4 and another two (in Australia) with unusually low concentrations of Fe and SO4. After the DOC additions caused the dissolved oxygen concentrations in the overlying waters to fall below 50 μmol L–1, the sediment porewater at all sites progressed through the expected anaerobic respiration sequence. The paucity of Fe and SO4 in the Australian lakes did not appear to constrain microbial iron and sulfate reduction. Indeed, the low Fe concentrations appeared to promote microbial sulfate reduction in the Australian sites. In the German site, there was little evidence of sulfide production in the porewater and no changes in porewater pH profiles. In contrast, the sediment porewater from the two Australian sites exhibited sulfide production and increased porewater pH. Bioremediation of acidic lakes must consider the need to treat iron-rich water before attempting pH amelioration.


Acknowledgements

This project was supported financially by the Western Australian Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Mine Lakes and Australian Research Council Linkage Project LP0454252. Financial support for D. J. Read was provided by an Australian Postgraduate Award and for T. Myllymäki by a Leonardo da Vinci grant from the European Community. The authors thank Gregory Ivey, the reviewers and the Editor for valuable comments on the manuscript. This manuscript is School of Environmental Systems Engineering Publication SESE 083.


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