The impact of drying on structure of sedimentary organic matter in wetlands: Probing with native and amended polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Zucheng Wang; Zhanfei Liu; Min Liu; Kehui Xu; Lawrence M Mayer

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.184

The impact of drying on structure of sedimentary organic matter in wetlands: Probing with native and amended polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Sci Total Environ. 2016 Oct 15:568:42-51. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.184. Epub 2016 Jun 7.

Authors

Zucheng Wang¹, Zhanfei Liu², Min Liu³, Kehui Xu⁴, Lawrence M Mayer⁵

Affiliations

¹ Marine Science Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, Port Aransas, TX 78373, USA; Department of Geography, Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science of the Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China; Institute for Peat and Mire, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China.
² Marine Science Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, Port Aransas, TX 78373, USA. Electronic address: zhanfei.liu@utexas.edu.
³ Department of Geography, Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science of the Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA; Coastal Studies Institute, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.
⁵ Darling Marine Center, University of Maine, Walpole, ME 04573, USA.

PMID: 27285795
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.184

Abstract

Wetland sediments undergo dry-wet cycles that may change their structural properties and affect geochemical behavior of associated organic compounds. In this study, we examined the effect of drying on particle size distributions and the rapid (24h) sorption reactions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with salt marsh sediments in Nueces Delta, South Texas. Drying reduced the fraction of fine particles in organically richer sediments, indicating structural rearrangement of organic matter and mineral aggregates. Among the 16 EPA priority PAHs examined, dried sediment preferentially released 1.0-7.5% of phenanthrene, fluoranthene and pyrene to added seawater (solid: water mass ratio of 1/100) - significantly greater than release from sediments maintained in the wet state. On the other hand, drying also increased the affinity of sedimentary organic matter (SOM) for experimentally amended (deuterated) phenanthrene relative to continually wet sediments. Further, deuterated phenanthrene was even more effectively retained when it was added to wet sediment that was subsequently dried and rewetted. These apparently contradictory results can be reconciled and explained by SOM having a heterogeneous distribution of hydrophobic and hydrophilic zones - e.g., a zonal model. We propose that drying changed the orientation of amphiphilic SOM, exposing hydrophobic zones and promoting the release of some of their native PAHs to water. Freshly amended PAHs were only able to penetrate into the surface hydrophobic zone and/or deeper but rapidly accessible ("kinetic") zone in wet sediments due to the brief adsorption contact time. Subsequent drying presumably then induced structural changes in SOM that isolated these amended PAHs in sites inaccessible to water exchange in the next rewetting. These results provide insights into structural changes of SOM upon drying, and help predict the fate of compounds such as organic contaminants during drought/flood oscillations.

Keywords: Drying-rewetting; Phenanthrene; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; Salt marsh; Sedimentary organic matter; Sorption; Zonal assemblage.