Preliminary Study on Nitrogen and Phosphorus Releases from Creek Sediments in Shanghai Suburbs

A laboratory study was conducted to observe the release ofnitrogen and phosphorus from the sediments under both anaerobic andaerobic conditions. The samples used were five creek sediments and afish-pond sediment (as a comparison) obtained from suburban Shanghai.High loads of nitrogen and phosphorus were found in the creeksediments. Total nitrogen of the sediments ranged form 1.17 to 5.95 gkg^-1; total phosphorus from 608.63 to 2 033.95 mg kg^-1. Making upmore than 90/100 of the total nitrogen, organic nitrogen was thedominant nitrogen fraction in the sediments; whereas inorganicphosphorus was the dominant phosphorus fraction, which made up morethan 85 percent of the total phosphorus. Ca-bound phosphorus fractiondominated inorganic phosphorus, which occupied more than 50/100 ofthe total.

A laboratory study was conducted to observe the release of nitrogen and phosphorus from the sedimentsunder both anaerobic and aerobic conditions. The samples used were five creek sediments and a fish-pondsediment (as a comparison) obtained from suburban Shanghai. High loads of nitrogen and phosphoruswere found in the creek sediments. Total nitrogen of the sediments ranged from 1.17 to 5.95 g kg-1; totalphosphorus from 608.63 to 2 033.95 mg kg-1. Making up more than 90% of the total nitrogen, organicnitrogen was the dominant nitrogen fraction in the sediments; whereas inorganic phosphorus was the dominantphosphorus fraction, which made up more than 85 percent of the total phosphorus. Cabound phosphorusfraction dominated inorganic phosphorus, which occupied more than 50% of the total.A large amount of ammonium was released from the sediments under both aerobic and anaerobic con-ditions, and the anaerobic releases were slightly greater than the aerobic. In addition, ammonium