Dynamics of dissolved organic matter in riverine sediments affected by weir impoundments: Production, benthic flux, and environmental implications.

In order to understand the characteristics and dynamics of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the sediment of rivers affected by impoundments, we examined the vertical profiles and the benthic fluxes of DOM in four different core sediments located at upstream sites of weirs in major rivers of South Korea. In three out of four sites, exponential accumulation of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) with depth was observed with the signature of seasonal variability. Except for the site displaying a below-detection limit of Fe(II), the general accumulation trends of DOC with depth was concurrent with the increases of Fe(II) and NH and the decrease of PO, signifying a close linkage of the DOM dynamics with anaerobic respiration via iron reduction, an important early diagenesis pathway.

Structural and compositional changes of dissolved organic matter upon solid-phase extraction tracked by multiple analytical tools.

Although PPL-based solid-phase extraction (SPE) has been widely used before dissolved organic matter (DOM) analyses via advanced measurements such as ultrahigh resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS), much is still unknown about the structural and compositional changes in DOM pool through SPE. In this study, selected DOM from various sources were tested to elucidate the differences between before and after the SPE utilizing multiple analytical tools including fluorescence spectroscopy, FT-ICR-MS, and size exclusion chromatography with organic carbon detector (SEC-OCD). The changes of specific UV absorbance indicated the decrease of aromaticity after the SPE, suggesting a preferential exclusion of aromatic DOM structures, which was also confirmed by the substantial reduction of fluorescent DOM (FDOM).