Rama Kotra Larry P. Gough 2000 report http://sofia.usgs.gov/projects/merc_metals/ Human activities have led to the deterioration of the productivity, biodiversity, and stability of the south Florida ecosystem. The fate of anthropogenic contaminants incorporated into the organic-rich sediments is not fully understood. Physical, chemical, and biological processes may remobilize some of the contaminants and reintroduce them into water, atmosphere, and the biological community. Other contaminants may be transformed during diagenesis and remain in surficial materials until the system is disturbed. This project examined the occurrence and cycling of mercury and metals in organic-rich sediments, pore fluids, and plants at selected sites in south Florida. An understanding of the relationship between diagenesis, concentration, speciation, and historical variation of elements of environmental significance is essential for planners in developing long-term remediation and management strategies for wetlands of south Florida. A better understanding of the controls on the cycling of these elements is critical for making informed decisions regarding the regulation of water levels and anticipating the effect of water regulation. This project was part of the Aquatic Cycling of Mercury in the Everglades (ACME) project which has become Integrated Geochemical Studies in the Everglades 199610 199809 ground condition Complete None planned -81.25 -80.3 26.6 24.75 none mercury biogeochemistry mercury cycling peat sawgrass trace elements biology hydrology chemistry ISO 19115 Topic Category biota environment geoscientificInformation inlandWaters imageryBaseMapsEarthCover 002 007 008 012 010 Department of Commerce, 1995, Countries, Dependencies, Areas of Special Sovereignty, and Their Principal Administrative Divisions, Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 10-4, Washington, D.C., National Institute of Standards and Technology United States US U.S. Department of Commerce, 1987, Codes for the identification of the States, the District of Columbia and the outlying areas of the United States, and associated areas (Federal Information Processing Standard 5-2): Washington, D. C., NIST Florida FL Department of Commerce, 1990, Counties and Equivalent Entities of the United States, Its Possessions, and Associated Areas, FIPS 6-3, Washington, DC, National Institute of Standards and Technology Collier County Broward County Miami-Dade County Monroe County Palm Beach County USGS Geographic Names Information System Shark River Slough Taylor Slough Lake Okeechobee none Central Everglades Greater Lake Okeechobee SW Big Cypress none none Rama Kotra U.S. Geological Survey Project chief mailing address

911 National Center

Reston VA 20192 USA 703 648 6271 703 648 6383 rkotra@usgs.gov http://sofia.usgs.gov/publications/ofr/00-327/intro.html the South Florida ACME study area GIF Gough, L. P. Kotra, R. K.; Holmes, C. W.; Orem, W. H.; Hageman, P. L.; Briggs, P. H.; Meier, A. L.; Borwn, Z. A. 2000 USGS Open-File Report OFR 00-327 U.S. Geological Survey Reston, VA http://sofia.usgs.gov/publications/ofr/00-327/ Arbogast, B. F., editor 1996 manual USGS Open-File Report 86-525 Reston, VA U.S. Geological Survey http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/ofr/ofr96525 Balistrieri, L. S. Gough, L. P.; Severson, R. C.; Montour, M. R.; Briggs, P. H.; Adrian, B. M.; Curry, K. J.; Fey, D. L.; Hageman, P. L.; Papp, C. S. 1995 report USGS Open-File Report 95-568 Denver, CO U.S. Geological Survey http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/ofr/ofr95568 Charles W. Holmes 1998 fact sheet USGS Fact Sheet 73-98 St. Petersburg, Florida U.S. Geological Survey http://sofia.usgs.gov/publications/fs/73-98 Jackson, L. L. Engleman, E. E.; Peard, J. L. 1985 report Environmental Science & Technology v. 19, issue 5 Washington, DC American Chemical Society Kennedy, K. R. Crock, J. G. 1987 report Analytical Letters v. 20 Philadelphia, PA Taylor & Francis Inc. Arbogast, B. F., editor 1990 manual USGS Open-File Report 90-668 unknown U.S. Geological Survey http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/ofr/ofr90668 Lichte, F. E. Meier, A. L.; Crock, J. G. 1986 report Analytical Chemistry v. 59, no. 8 Washington, DC American Chemical Society Meier, A. Grimes, D. J.; Ficklin,. W. H. 1994 report USGS Circular 1103A unknown U.S. Geological Survey in USGS Research on Mineral Resources - 1994, Part A - Program and Abstracts; carter, L. M. H.; Toth, M. I.; and Day, W. C., editors http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/cir/cir1103A Gough, L. P. Crock, J. G. 1997 report USGS Professional Paper 1574 unknown U.S. Geological Survey in Geologic Studies in Alaska by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1995; Dumoulin, J. A. And Gray, J. E., editors http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/pp/pp1574 Orem, W. H. Lerch, H. E.; Rawlik, P. 1997 report USGS Open-File Report 97-454 Reston, VA U.S. Geological Survey http://sofia.usgs.gov/publications/ofr/97-454 Orem, W. H. Bates, A. L.; Lerch, H. E.; Corum, M.; Boylan, A. 1999 report USGS Open-File Report 99-181 Reston, VA U.S. Geological Survey http://fl.water.usgs.gov/Abstracts/ofr99_181_gerould.html Lichte, F. E. Golightly, D. W.; Lamother, P. J. 1987 book chapter USGS Bulletin 1770 Reston, VA U.S. Geological Survey in Methods of Geochemical Analysis; Baedecker, P. A., ed. Gough, L. P. Kotra, R. K.; Holmes, C. W.; Briggs. P. H.; Crock, J. G.; Fey, D. L.; Hageman, P. L.; Meier, A. L. 1996 report USGS Open-File Report 96-91 unknown U.S. Geological Survey http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/ofr/ofr9691 not applicable not available Sampling sites: Field work was conducted from May 17-24, 1996 in Taylor Slough. Information collected included the site no., field ID, latitude, longitude, sample type, date collected, and general comments. May is the end of the dry season and usually allows for ready access to sediment sampling sites because of generally low water levels; however, during May 1996 relatively deep standing water was encountered. Field collections: Water - Surface water samples, analyzed for major and trace elements (except Hg), were collected in field-rinsed 1 L polyethylene bottles and transferred via filtration in the field (by passing through pre-rinsed cellulose acetate 0.45 micron membranes) to acid-washed and field-rinsed 250 ml bottles. Element stability was assured by the addition of 10 drops of concentrated, ultra-pure nitric acid. Samples collected for Hg analyses were taken from the same 1 L bottle. The samples were filtered as above and 30 ml was added to glass, oven-baked bottles with teflon-coated lids. Mercury stability was assured by the addition of 1.5 ml of sodium dichromate/nitric acid. Vegetation - The vegetation component of the biogeochemical cycling of trace elements was investigated using sawgrass (Cladium jamaicensis Crantz), the dominant species in the Everglades marsh. In addition, bromeliads (Tillandsia spp, also known as air plants) were collected when available because of their ability to concentrate airborne metals and therefore act as air quality monitors. Data for the air plant samples are reported in Gough and others, 1996, OFR 96-91. Sawgrass leaves (about 200 g, dry weight) were clipped using stainless steel shears at about 10 cm above the high water level. Flowering structures, if present, were removed. Samples consisted of a composite of four individual plants collected within three meters of the site where the core material was taken. The material was double sealed in plastic bags and chilled using "wet ice". Sawgrass roots consisted of the material below the sediment level for each sawgrass clump. This usually consisted of the basal protion below the meristem that contains the major rhizomes (but not the fibrous "feeder" roots). The material was field rinsed, double sealed in plastic bags, and chilled using "wet ice". Organic-rich sediments - Sediment cores were obtained by pushing a piston-sealed, 10.2 cm diameter, acrylic butyrate core liner into the sediment using the method described in Orem and others, 1997, OFR 97-454. Usually greater than 60 cm of sediment were collected in the core liner at the sites. The cores were maintained in an upright position until they were extruded and sectioned, usually within 8 hours of collection. All sediment samples were placed in plastic bags, chilled, and shipped to the laboratory where they were frozen. Detailed discussions of sample preparation and analyses for water, plant, and sediment samples can be found in Arbogast, 1996, Gough and Crock, 1997, Holmes, 1998, Lichte and others, 1986, and Orem and others, 1999. In the laboratory, sawgrass was removed from the sample bags, placed in Teflon beakers, submerged and rinsed in deionized water, and drained. This process was repeated at least three times. Plant material was then placed in plastic colanders, rinsed briefly with deionized water, and allowed to drip drain. Colanders were then placed directly into ovens and the material was dried for 24 hr. at about 40 deg. C. This temperature is near the maximum summer ambient field temperature and should not result in any important loss of Hg through volatilization. Samples were then ground in a Wiley mill to pass a 2-mm (10-mesh) sieve. Splits of the ground plant material were ashed at 450-500 deg. C over an 18 hr. period and ash yield was determined. In order to insure adequate material and sample type for the various analyses conducted, replicate cores were commonly extracted from each study site. The cores used for the geochronology studies (210Pb analyses) and pore water chemistry were sectioned (extracted) at 2 cm intervals whereas the cores used in the trace metal geochemical studies were sectioned at 5 cm intervals. Because most core material below about 40 cm was several hundred years old, the interval for sectioning commonly increased to 5 or 10 cm for all cores. This was performed in order to economize on the total number of samples being analyzed. For element analyses, subsets of the sediment core sections were dried, ground, and ashed in a manner similar to the plant samples (Arbogast, 1990; Balistrieri and others, 1995). For details on the 210Pb sediment dating method see Holmes (1998). One hundred milligrams of plant and sediment sample ash was digested with mixed acids. After complete digestion of the ash, 40 major and trace elements were determined by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) (Lichte and others, 1987). Mercury was determined directly on a subset of the dried, ground, unashed plant and sediment material by cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS)(Kennedy and Crock, 1987). Total sulfur was determined in plant samples only on 250 mg of the ground material by combustion at 1370 deg. C in an oxygen atmosphere with infrared detection of evolved SO2 (Jackson and other, 1985). Water samples were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) (Meier and others, 1994; Arbogast, 1996). The element analyses (except for Hg) for the sediment material were all performed in a non-government contract laboratory. Analyses for plant material and water were performed by the Denver Laboratories of the USGS. Blind standard reference materials were submitted to the laboratories as part of each suite of samples. This included material from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), and from internal USGS prepared materials. In addition, some of the material was sampled twice in the field (identified by a "Y"), and split in the laboratory for duplicate analysis (identified by an "X"). 1999 Rama Kotra U.S. Geological Survey Project chief mailing address

911 National Center

Reston VA 20192 USA 703 648 6271 703 648 6383 rkotra@usgs.gov Heather S.Henkel U.S. Geological Survey mailing address

600 Fourth St. South

St. Petersburg FL 33701 USA 727 803-8747 ext 3028 727 803-2030 hhenkel@usgs.gov geochemistry of metals in organic-rich sediments The data have no explicit or implied guarantees. report http://sofia.usgs.gov/publications/ofr/00-327/ The Open-File Report containing the data may be downloaded from the SOFIA website none 20070209 Heather Henkel U.S. Geological Survey mailing and physical address

600 Fourth Street South

St. Petersburg FL 33701 USA 727 803-8747 ext 3028 727 803-2030 sofia-metadata@usgs.gov Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001-1998