Effect of wastewater management on phosphorus content and sedimentary fractionation in Mediterranean saline lakes

The La Mancha Húmeda Biosphere Reserve is the largest wetland district in the Iberian Peninsula, containing many temporary saline lakes undergoing different anthropogenic pressures. Eleven of these lakes were selected to assess phosphorus (P) burial, fractionation and mobilization in their sediments. Wastewater inputs, wherever they occurred, favored accumulation of all P sedimentary fractions, which took place mainly via precipitation with divalent cations (i.e. calcium or magnesium) and as buried organic matter, both representing relatively occluded P forms, although they can also be involved in P release. P immobilization would be partially restrained in the volcanic lakes of the region,…