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Synthetic Iron Oxides for Documenting Sulfide in Marsh Pore Water
Author(s) -
Rabenhorst Martin C.,
Megonigal J. Patrick,
Keller Jason
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj2009.0435
Subject(s) - marsh , soil water , environmental science , pore water pressure , groundwater , environmental chemistry , sampling (signal processing) , sulfide , decomposition , wetland , soil science , hydrology (agriculture) , mineralogy , chemistry , geology , ecology , filter (signal processing) , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry , computer science , computer vision , biology
In estuarine systems, naturally occurring soluble S 2− is an indicator of anaerobic decomposition by the SO 4 2− reduction pathway and can, at high concentrations, be detrimental to plant communities. Depth distributions of soluble S 2− in marsh pore water are typically measured using either equilibrium dialysis samplers (peepers) or pore water extractors (sippers). The former technique provides concentrations equilibrated over one or more weeks at centimeter‐scale resolution, while the latter allows rapid sampling and analysis but with a coarser vertical resolution (5–10 cm). We report on a novel technology for documenting marsh pore water S 2− concentrations based on reactive synthetic Fe oxides and image analysis, which allows rapid sampling but still captures small‐scale spatial resolution. During the last few years, this new technology associated with synthetic Fe oxides known as IRIS (Indicator of Reduction In Soils) has been developed to aid in documenting reducing conditions in wetland soils. Our recent work has shown that IRIS technology can be used to document and measure H 2 S levels in marsh soil pore water. The data obtained can provide detailed, quantitative information on S 2− concentrations with millimeter‐scale spatial resolution.