Anthropogenic signature of sediment organic matter probed by UV-Visible and fluorescence spectroscopy and the association with heavy metal enrichment

Sediment organic matter (SOM) was extracted in an alkaline solution from 43 stream sediments in order to explore the anthropogenic signatures. The SOM spectroscopic characteristics including excitation-emission matrix (EEM)-parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) were compared for five sampling site groups classified by the anthropogenic variables of land use, population density, the loadings of organics and nutrients, and metal enrichment. The conventional spectroscopic characteristics including specific UV absorbance, absorbance ratio, and humification index did not properly discriminate among the different cluster groups except in the case of metal enrichment. Of the four decomposed PARAFAC components, humic-like and tryptophan-like fluorescence responded negatively and positively, respectively, to increasing degrees of the anthropogenic variables except for land use. The anthropogenic enrichment of heavy metals was positively associated with the abundance of tryptophan-like component. In contrast, humic-like component, known to be mostly responsible for metal binding, exhibited a decreasing trend corresponding with metal enrichment. These conflicting trends can be attributed to the overwhelmed effects of the coupled discharges of heavy metals and organic pollutants into sediments. Our study suggests that the PARAFAC components can be used as functional signatures to probe the anthropogenic influences on sediments.

Spectroscopic characterization of dissolved organic matter isolates from sediments and the association with phenanthrene binding affinity

In this study, selected spectroscopic characteristics of sediment organic matter (SOM) were compared and discussed with respect to their different isolation methods, the source discrimination capabilities, and the association with the extent of phenanthrene binding. A total of 16 sediments were collected from three categorized locations including a costal lake, industrial areas, and upper streams, each of which is likely influenced by the organic sources of algal production, industrial effluent, and terrestrial input, respectively. The spectroscopic properties related to aromatic structures and terrestrial humic acids were more pronounced for alkaline extractable organic matter (AEOM) isolates than for the SOM isolates based on water soluble extracts and pore water. The three categorized sampling locations were the most differentiated in the AEOM isolates, suggesting AEOM may be the most representative SOM isolates in terms of describing the chemical properties and the organic sources of SOM. Parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) based on fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (EEM) showed that a combination of three fluorescent groups could represent all the fluorescence features of SOM. The three categorized sampling locations were well discriminated by the percent distributions of humic-like fluorescent groups of the AEOM isolates. The relative distribution of terrestrial humic-like fluorophores was well correlated with the extent of phenanthrene binding (r=0.571; p<0.05), suggesting that the presence of humic acids in SOM may contribute to the enhancement of binding with hydrophobic organic contaminants in sediments. Principal component analysis (PCA) further demonstrated that the extent of SOM's binding affinity might be affected by the degree of biogeochemical transformation in SOM.