Comparison of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and molybdenum blue colorimetry for total phosphorus determination in freshwater invertebrates.

Molybdenum blue colorimetry (MBC) is the dominant, well-established method used for determining total P in environmental media, including in organismal tissues. However, other elemental methods for P determination are available, including inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Given the extensive literature using MBC to determine P in organismal samples, it is important to assess P analyses by ICP-MS and MBC to ensure that the two methods produce comparable data.

Surfactant-induced flow compromises determination of air-water interfacial areas by surfactant miscible-displacement.

Surfactant miscible-displacement (SMD) column experiments are used to measure air-water interfacial area (A) in unsaturated porous media, a property that influences solute transport and phase-partitioning. The conventional SMD experiment results in surface tension gradients that can cause water redistribution and/or net drainage of water from the system ("surfactant-induced flow"), violating theoretical foundations of the method. Nevertheless, the SMD technique is still used, and some suggest that experimental observations of surfactant-induced flow represent an artifact of improper control of boundary conditions.

Vapor-phase transport of trichloroethene in an intermediate-scale vadose-zone system: retention processes and tracer-based prediction.

Gas-phase transport experiments were conducted using a large weighing lysimeter to evaluate retention processes for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in water-unsaturated (vadose-zone) systems, and to test the utility of gas-phase tracers for predicting VOC retardation. Trichloroethene (TCE) served as a model VOC, while trichlorofluoromethane (CFM) and heptane were used as partitioning tracers to independently characterize retention by water and the air-water interface, respectively. Retardation factors for TCE ranged between 1.

Implications of surfactant-induced flow for miscible-displacement estimation of air-water interfacial areas in unsaturated porous media.

Surfactant miscible-displacement experiments represent a conventional means of estimating air-water interfacial area (A(I)) in unsaturated porous media. However, changes in surface tension during the experiment can potentially induce unsaturated flow, thereby altering interfacial areas and violating several fundamental method assumptions, including that of steady-state flow. In this work, the magnitude of surfactant-induced flow was quantified by monitoring moisture content and perturbations to effluent flow rate during miscible-displacement experiments conducted using a range of surfactant concentrations.

X-ray microtomography determination of air-water interfacial area-water saturation relationships in sandy porous media.

In this work, total smooth air-water interfacial areas were measured for a series of nine natural and model sandy porous media as a function of water saturation using synchrotron X-ray microtomography. Interfacial areas decreased linearly with water satuation, while the estimated maximum interfacial area compared favorably to the media geometric surface areas. Importantly, relative interfacial area (i.