Phosphorus Speciation and Sedimentary Fluxes in Hypersaline Sediments of the Guerrero Negro Salt Evaporation Area,Baja California Sur,Mexico

In the past several decades, the techniques used to discern the different sedimentary fractions of P have been refined. This has allowed for a better understanding of P burial of the different P fractions and diagenetic reactions and, ultimately, the constraining of P residence time in the oceans. P sequential extraction was performed on eight sediment cores (between 16 and 24 cm deep) collected along a salinity gradient from the Ojo de Liebre Lagoon and the salt evaporation saltern of Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, Mexico in order to determine, under purely diagenetic conditions (in the absence of anthropogenic activities and biogenic sediment reworking), the fractionation and flux of P to the sediments. The majority of P was found in the authigenic fraction (37 ± 5.4% to 53 ± 8.9%), with P associated to organic matter comprising the overall smallest percentage (0.25 ± 0.43% to 21 ± 6.0%) relative to total P. The average flux of total P to the sediments for all the sites was found to be (451 ± 127) × 10⁻⁴ mol m⁻² year⁻¹, up to several orders of magnitude greater than those found in other studies. It is concluded that P is most likely transformed from P associated to organic matter to the authigenic mineral phase and that P was retained in the sediments in its mineral form rather than in reactive forms. This particular study area has the ability to retain large quantities of P in the sediments.