Dissolved Mn Speciation and Ligand Characteristics in a Coastal Waterway

Abstract:

Soluble manganese speciation (Mn(II) and Mn(III); 0.2 μm filtered) was measured along a salinity gradient in the Broadkill River, a coastal waterway bordered by wetlands and salt marshes in Delaware. We modified an established method of porphyrin (T-4(CP)P) addition, by incorporating a heating step and coupling a 100-cm cell to a UV/Vis detector, to achieve a 4.0 nM sample DL. Surface waters were collected from June to August, 2014 and total dissolved Mn (0.23 – 1.92 μM) first increased then decreased along the salinity gradient (31 ppt to freshwater). However, Mn speciation was highly variable; Mn(III) made up 0-49 % of the total dissolved Mn, where the highest Mn(III) values occurred at sites with high salt-marsh runoff. Mn(III) was not recoverable without the addition of a strong reducing agent, indicating that little or no weak ligand was present, and that a strong ligand was responsible for complexing Mn(III). An assessment of potential strong ligand character was made by precipitating humic matter, by acidifying subsamples to pH<1.5, then 100 μM Mn(III)-pyrophosphate was added to acidified supernatant samples and non-acidified samples. In non-acidified samples, the Mn(III)-pyrophosphate peak at 484 nm rapidly disappeared and was replaced by a broad peak at 400 nm and the resulting sample had a yellow color. Upon the addition of 500 μM desferrioxamine-B (DFOB) to the same sample, a peak at 310 nm appeared, indicating the formation of Mn(III)-DFOB. In acidified samples, the Mn(III)-pyrophosphate peak did not change. Humic matter, therefore, may be acting as an Mn(III) binding ligand, outcompeting pyrophosphate for Mn(III), however this natural ligand is outcompeted by a large excess of DFOB. The humic matter and increased Mn likely come from the salt marsh runoff during tidal exchange, and we observed that as salinity increased, the amount of humic binding decreased. These results present the first Mn speciation measurements along a salinity gradient in oxygenated waters.