High-resolution simultaneous measurements of dissolved reactive phosphorus and dissolved sulfide: the first observation of their simultaneous release in sediments

The reassessments of environmental processes in sediments rely upon capturing the heterogeneous features of elements at a small scale and at the same location. In this study, a diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) technique was developed for the high-resolution simultaneous measurements of dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) and dissolved sulfide. A new binding gel was used in this DGT technique, which was prepared by incorporating AgI particles into the zirconium oxide binding gel previously used in the DGT measurement of DRP. The concentrations of the DRP and sulfide loaded into the binding gel were determined by a routine procedure and a computer-imaging densitometry (CID) technique, respectively. The performance of this DGT technique was tested under laboratory conditions and applied to in situ measurements in sediments of a shallow lake. Simultaneous release of DRP and dissolved sulfide was observed in a sulfide microniche with a diameter of ～3 mm and in locally aggregated zones with a length over 1 cm, which was attributed to the simultaneous reductions of Fe(III) and sulfate and the associated release of Fe-bound P in the zones of the reactive organic matter in sediments. The good performance of this technique implies that there is a great potential for the development of new DGT techniques capable of simultaneous measurements of more analytes.