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Arsenic Geochemistry of the Great Dismal Swamp, Virginia, USA: Possible Organic Matter Controls

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Abstract

Surface water samples for arsenic (As) concentration and speciation analysis were collected from organic matter-rich blackwaters of the Lake Drummond portion of the Great Dismal Swamp in southeastern Virginia, USA. Arsenic concentrations and speciation were determined by selective hydride generation, gas chromatography with photoionization detection. Surface waters from the Great Dismal Swamp are high in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations (445–9,600 μmol/kg) and of low pH (4.2–6.4). Total dissolved As concentrations [i.e., As(III) + As(V)], hereafter AsT, range from 2.2 nmol/kg to 21.4 nmol/kg. Arsenite, As(III), concentrations range from ∼1 nmol/kg to 17.7 nmol/kg, and As(V) ranges from ∼1 nmol/kg to 14.1 nmol/kg. Arsenate, As(V), is the predominant form of dissolved As in the inflow waters to the Great Dismal Swamp, whereas within the swamp proper arsenite, As(III), dominates. Arsenite accounts for 8–37% of AsT in inflow waters west of the Suffolk Scarp, and between 54% and 81% of AsT in Lake Drummond and Great Dismal Swamp waters east of the scarp. Arsenite is strongly correlated to DOC (r = 0.94) and inversely related to pH (r = −0.9), both at greater than the 99% confidence level. Arsenate is weakly related to pH and DOC (r = 0.4 and −0.37, respectively), and neither relationship is statistically significant. No statistical relationships exist between As(V) or As(III) and PO4 concentrations. The predominance of As(III) and its strong correlation with DOC in Great Dismal Swamp waters suggest that DOC may inhibit As(III) adsorption or form stable aqueous complexes with As(III) in these waters. Alternatively, phytoplankton and/or bacterially mediated reduction of As(V) may be important processes in the organic-rich blackwaters and/or sediment porewaters of the swamp, leading to the prevalence of As(III) in the water column.

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Acknowledgments

We are especially grateful to G. A. Cutter and L. S. Cutter of the Department of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at Old Dominion University for providing the opportunity and the means for the arsenic species analyses. This work was funded in part by NSF Grants EAR-0001086 to K. H. Johannesson and J. R. Donat, EAR-0510697 to K. H. Johannesson, and the M.U.S.T. (Minority Undergraduate Scholarship and Training) program in biogeochemistry (NSF REU grant to R. E. Hannigan and C. M. Jones). Ms. H. Reeves and Mr. F. Batista also contributed to this study through the M.U.S.T. program. D. Miller drafted Fig. 1.

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  1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019-0049, USA

    Shama E. Haque

  2. Institute of Applied Geosciences, Graz University of Technology, Rechbauerstrasse 12, Graz, 8010, Austria

    Jianwu Tang

  3. Department of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, 23529-0276, USA

    William J. Bounds & David J. Burdige

  4. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, 70118-5698, USA

    Karen H. Johannesson

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Correspondence to Karen H. Johannesson.

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Haque, S.E., Tang, J., Bounds, W.J. et al. Arsenic Geochemistry of the Great Dismal Swamp, Virginia, USA: Possible Organic Matter Controls. Aquat Geochem 13, 289–308 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10498-007-9021-0

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