Organic volatile sulfur compounds in inland aquatic systems

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:5521541

Richards, S R

The speciation, concentration, and fluxes of organic volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) in a wide variety of inland aquatic systems wee studied. Dissolved VSCs were sparged from water samples, trapped cryogenically, and quantified by gas chromatograph equipped with a flame photometric detector. Species detected and mean surface water concentrations were: carbonyl sulfide (COS), 0.091-7.6 nM; methanethiol (MSH), undetected-180 nM; dimethyl sulfide (DMS), 0.48-1290 nM; carbon disulfide (CS[sub 2]), undetected-69 nM; dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), undetected-68 nM. The range in surface water concentrations of over five orders of magnitude was influenced principally by lake depth and sulfate concentration ([SO[sub 4][sup 2[minus]]]). Unstratified lakes had surface water concentrations of DMS, MSH, and DMDS 5-70 times higher than stratified lakes. Salt lakes (Saskatchewan) with more than 20 g (SO[sub 4][sup 2[minus]]) litre[sup [minus]1] contained concentrations of DMS and MSH orders of magnitude greater than freshwater lakes. The sediments were net sources of MSH and DMS, while the water column was both a source and a sink. Globally, inland aquatic systems are not as significant as the oceans in producing atmospheric sulfur. However, fluxes per unit area were similar to, or greater than the ocean. Furthermore, lakes can return to the atmosphere a significant fraction of the So[sub 4][sup 2[minus]] precipitated on their surface, and may be regionally significant contributors to atmospheric sulfur.

• Research Organization: Manitoba Univ., Winnipeg, MB (Canada)
• OSTI ID: 5521541
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540320* -- Environment
Aquatic-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
CHALCOGENIDES
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ECOSYSTEMS
FRESH WATER
GLOBAL ASPECTS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MATTER
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC SULFUR COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR CYCLE
SULFUR OXIDES
VOLATILE MATTER
WATER
WATER POLLUTION