The spectral characteristics of dissolved organic matter from sediments in Lake Baiyangdian, North China

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) extracted from sediment samples in Lake Baiyangdian was investigated using UV -Vis absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. Two parameters, the ratios of absorbance and dissolved organic carbon at 254 degrees nm (SUVA(254)) and the integral area from 240 degrees nm to 400 degrees nm (A(240-400)), were used to assess the molecular weight and aromaticity of DOM. The surface sediments showed a relatively low aromaticity of DOM due to the impact of environmental pollution. Synchronous fluorescence spectra showed an extremely high fraction of the protein-like region (PLR). Parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) of excitation -emission matrix spectra revealed four fluorescent components occurring in sediment DOM: two humic-like (C1 and C2) components and two protein-like (C3 and C4) components. The PARAFAC-PCA displayed three PCA factors (factors 1,2 and 3) which accounted for 48.250%, 25.927% and 25.391%, respectively, of the variance in fluorescent component. The humic-like components 1 and 2 concurrently showed positive factor 1 loadings. Factor 2 was mainly explained by the tryptophan-like component C3. A non-humic component 4, having a low factor loading in the other two factors, showed an extremely high factor 3 loading. The EEM -PARAFAC-PCA showed varying contributions of terrestrial versus autochthonous DOM sources in lake sediments. (C) 2014 International Association for Great Lakes Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.