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Organic volatile sulfur in lakes ranging in sulfate and dissolved salt concentration over five orders of magnitude
Author(s) -
Richards S. R.,
Rudd J. W. M.,
Kelly C. A.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1994.39.3.0562
Subject(s) - sulfate , dimethyl sulfide , sulfur , methanethiol , environmental chemistry , dimethyl disulfide , bay , dissolved organic carbon , chemistry , flux (metallurgy) , salt (chemistry) , total organic carbon , hydrogen sulfide , sulfide , environmental science , oceanography , geology , organic chemistry
Organic volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) were studied in six hypersaline lakes (southern Saskatchewan) and in dilute wetland ponds (Hudson Bay Lowlands, HBL). [SO 4 2− ] (0.0002–64 g liter −1 ) and salt concentration (0.003–370 g liter −1 ) ranged over 5 orders of magnitude. Organic VSC concentrations in ponds and lakes with [SO 4 2− ] < 7 g liter ’ were similar to those measured previously in freshwater lakes. Lakes with >20 g SO 4 2− liter −1 , however, had VSC concentrations several orders of magnitude higher. Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) was the dominant species, reaching a concentration of 3,050 nM in one salt lake—the highest concentration yet recorded. Carbonyl sulfide (COS), methanethiol (MSH), dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), and carbon disulfide (CS 2 ) were also detected. In the salt lakes, [DMS], [MSH], and [total VSC] were positively correlated ( P < 0.05) to [SO 4 2− ] but not to dissolved salt concentration ( P < 0.05). The estimated mean atmospheric flux from the salt lakes ranged from 2 to 590 µ mol S m −2 d −1 . The low end of this range is similar to fluxes from Canadian Shield lakes and the ocean; the high end is 500× higher. Fluxes from the HBL ponds (0.4–4 µ mol S m −2 d −1 ) were similar to fluxes from Canadian Shield lakes.