Dispersion Potential of Selected Iowa Lake Sediments as Influenced by Dissolved and Solid‐phase Constituents

Critics charge that agricultural managers routinely overdose their fields with chemical N and P to levels that exceed the soil's capacity to adsorb these materials, creating a situation that promotes hypoxia in Iowa lakes. Soil colloidal particles, capable of forming complexes with inorganic and organic N and P, control the equilibrium concentration of dissolved nutrients in lake waters. However, it should be realized that adsorbed nutrients also exhibit strong influences on the potential of sediments to undergo dispersion, a condition that may directly impact nutrient bioavailability. Thus, direct links may exist between adsorbed nutrient compositions and flocculation/dispersion properties of lake colloidal material. This paper presents work involving four Iowa lakes undertaken to determine relationships between ion composition and the dispersion potential of sediments. Surface waters and lake‐bottom grab samples were collected at three separate collection times from August to October. Samples were characterized for dissolved and adsorbed cations. Dispersion potential of each water sample was characterized by relating the total suspended solids concentration to the absorbance at 560 nm. It was found that sediment dispersion was easily predictable by a simple yet significant linear correlation with the concentration ratio of Na (CR_Na = Na]/Ca]^–1/2) in solution. This correlation was further improved by including Na concentration, CR_K, electrical conductivity, temperature, and solution P concentrations into the model. Nonlinear inter‐dependences were found between TSS and cation exchange capacity (CEC), and adsorbed Na, K, P, and heavy metals. Our analysis suggests that solution/solid phase constituents influenced the dispersion behavior of sediments through subtle manipulations of the excess surface charge.