Characterization of natural organic matter from four Victorian freshwater systems

Abstract

The natural organic matter (NOM) from three streams (Redwater Creek, Slip Creek, Myrtle Creek) and one small lake (the Inkpot) in Victoria, Australia, was fractionated by a simplified version of Leenheer's method in which the NOM is separated into two fractions-hydrophobic acid (HFo-A) compounds and total hydrophilic (HE-T) compounds-on the basis of association with XAD-8 resin. Subsequently, the HFo-A fraction was further separated into humic acid and fulvic acid fractions. One sample (Redwater Creek) was also separated into six different fractions by the full Leenheer scheme.

Considerable variation was found in the ratio of humic substances (or the HFo-A fraction) to nonhumic substances (or the HFi-T fraction) between the four samples, with ratios ranging from a high of 77:23% for the Inkpot to a low of 20:80% for Slip Creek. Samples with higher NOM concentrations had higher percentages of humic substances. The major differences in the proportions of humic to nonhumic compounds observed for Slip Creek (20:80%) and Myrtle Creek (52:48%) support the hypothesis that the residence time of the water in the catchment (or, more specifically, the contact time between this water and the sediments, soil, vegetation and microbial community) may control the concentration and nature of aquatic NOM. Within the HFo-A, or humic fraction, the ratio of fulvic acids to humic acids was fairly constant for each of the four water samples investigated, being dominated (>80%) by fulvic acids.