Profiles of dissolved and acid-leachable selenium in a sediment core from the lower St. Lawrence estuary

Concentrations of Se in the pore-water and in the solid phase, and the concentrations of other diagenetic constituents (Fe, Mn, phosphate, ammonium and I) in pore-water, were determined in a sediment core from a 350-m deep station in the lower St. Lawrence Estuary. The concentration of dissolved Se in pore-water was 2.1 nmol kg⁻¹ at the surface of the core, increasing to a maximum of 7.6 nmol kg⁻¹ at a depth of 12 cm, and thereafter decreasing gradually with depth. This profile is similar to the profiles of Fe and phosphate, whose concentration maxima occur around 10 cm. The concentration of total sedimentary Se remained almost constant with depth (≈ 0.75 mg kg⁻¹); however, a significant enrichment of oxalate-leachable Se was observed in the top 2 cm. The sedimentary cycling of Se appears to be closely related to that of Fe: adsorption of Se onto Fe oxyhydroxide at or near the sediment-water interface, release of the adsorbed Se by the reduction of Fe oxyhydroxide, and removal by formation of ferroselite (FeSe₂) at depth. The pore-water flux of Se was estimated by two different methods, firstly from the pore-water gradient, and secondly by applying a box model to the oxalate-leachable solid-phase Se data. The methods agree well both giving values for the flux of 0.11 nmol cm⁻² year⁻¹. This agreement suggests that the loss of labile Se in the sediment is balanced by the upward flux of dissolved Se.