Vascular plant and microbial biomarkers of dissolved organic matter data from incubation experiments

Abstract. Spectral characteristics of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) were examined in conjunction with environmental factors in the waters of 22 rivers and 26 terminal waters in Hulun Buir plateau, northeast China. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorous (TP) were significantly higher in terminal waters than rivers waters (p < 0.01). Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that non-water light absorption and anthropogenic nutrient disturbances might be the causes of the diversity of water quality parameters in Hulun Buir plateau. CDOM absorption in river waters was significantly lower than terminal waters (p < 0.01). Analysis of ratio of absorption at 250–365 nm (E250 : 365), specific UV absorbance (SUVA254), and spectral slope ratio (Sr) indicated that CDOM in river waters had higher aromaticity, molecular weight, and vascular plant contribution than in terminal waters. Furthermore, results showed that DOC concentration, CDOM light absorption, and the proportion of autochthonous sources of CDOM in plateau waters were all higher than in other freshwater rivers reported in the literature. The strong evapoconcentration, intense ultraviolet irradiance and landscape features of Hulun Buir plateau may be responsible for the above phenomenon. Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that the environmental variables TSM, TN, and EC had a strong correlation with light absorption characteristics, followed by TDS and chlorophyll a. In most sampling locations, CDOM was the dominant non-water light-absorbing substance. Light absorption by non-algal particles often exceeded that by phytoplankton in the plateau waters. Study of these optical-physicochemical correlations is helpful in the evaluation of the potential influence of water quality factors on non-water light absorption in cold plateau water environments. And the study on organic carbon in plateau lakes had a vital contribution to global carbon balance estimation.

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Tracing terrestrial compounds leaching from two reservoir catchments as input to dissolved organic matter

Marine and Freshwater Research ◽

10.1071/mf00058 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 52 (2) ◽

pp. 223 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

D. W. Page ◽

J. A. van Leeuwen ◽

K. M. Spark ◽

D. E. Mulcahy

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Organic Matter ◽

Dissolved Organic Matter ◽

Vascular Plant ◽

Terrestrial Plants ◽

Soil Horizons ◽

Water Reservoirs ◽

Conventional Pyrolysis ◽

Cuo Oxidation

Conventional pyrolysis—GC—MS,thermochemolysis and alkaline CuO oxidation were applied to determine differences between dissolved organic matter (DOM)from terrestrial plants,soil horizons and drinking water reservoirs in two catchments in South Australia.These two reservoir-catchment systems were selected on the basis of contrasting vegetation and land use.Pyrolysis of DOM yielded furans,aliphatic products and N-containing compounds,which are indicative of polysaccharides,lipids and proteins,respectively.Thermo-chemolysis enabled detection of methoxy-benzyl compounds derived from various sources of DOM,indicating that these compounds can be used as bio-markers of vascular plant sources.Vanillic acid was detected from DOM isolates from the vegetation,soils and reservoir waters of the two catchments,using CuO oxidation,and hence this compound also appears to be a suitable bio-marker for tracing allochthonous DOM input into the reservoirs. Each of the three techniques resulted in the formation of different compounds from the DOM isolates,which indicated the type of precursor bio-polymer and/or some of the methoxyphenol structures of lignin.

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