Phosphorus Speciation and Vertical Variation in Sediments from Lake Baihua

This paper reports a study on vertical distribution characteristics of phosphorus speciation in samples collected at four sites from Baihua Lake, based on the Standards, Measurements and Testing (SMT) programme. In this study, the total phosphorus (TP) concentrations of these sediments samples varied from 944.86 to 2591.56 mg/kg and inorganic phosphorus (IP) was the main phosphorus fraction. For this heavily contaminated sediment, the IP mainly consisted of the Fe/Al-P. The vertical variation of the phosphorus had a tendency to decrease with the depth at sites JYS and YPZ. Since the concentrations of the TP in sediments were high and the phosphorus release potential and bioavailability were significant, the lake is still facing an ecological risk.