Movement of Phosphate and Other Ions From and Through Lake Muds
Laboratory experiments showed that sheets of polyethylene or a layer of sand placed on the surface of undisturbed lake mud reduce the loss of oxygen in the overlying water and greatly decrease the rate of release of phosphate, iron, and ammonium from the sediment. Polyethylene laid on disturbed mud produced the same effects, and it also reduced the rate of release of total ions as measured by electrical conductivity.Experiments with P32 showed that phosphate moves readily through undisturbed mud, and that the movement is not a biotic process. We also found that phosphate and ammonium injected 4 cm below the mud–water interface move upwards into the water, and that this applies to both a rich calcareous mud and a poor acid peaty one.We concluded that early reports of little movement of phosphate through muds are erroneous, possibly because they are based on short experiments, and that there is a great potential store of nutrient salts in enriched muds. This would greatly delay recovery of lakes that have been rendered eutrophic by pollution, so we suggest that polyethylene sheet laid on the sediments of valued lakes may serve to rehabilitate them more rapidly.