Of all the metal oxide particles, amorphous iron oxides have the greatest adsorption capacity for phosphate. Coastal sediments are often coated with terrigenous amorphous iron oxides, and those containing high iron are thought to have a high adsorption capacity. However, this conventional wisdom is based largely upon studies of phosphate adsorption on laboratory-synthesized minerals themselves containing no phosphorus. Using natural sediments that contain variable phosphorus and iron, our results demonstrate thatthe exchangeable phosphate rather than the iron oxides of sediments governs the overall sorption behavior. The iron oxide content becomes important only in sediments that are poor in phosphorus. A total of 40 sampling sites across the Florida Bay provide detailed spatial distributions both of the sediment's zero equilibrium phosphate concentration (EPC0) and of the distribution coefficient (Kd) that are consistent with the distribution of the exchangeable phosphate content of the sediment. This study provides the first quantitative relationships between sorption characteristics (EPC0 and Kd) and the exchangeable phosphate content of natural sediments.

Our previous studies on the phosphate sorption on sediments in Florida Bay at 25 °C in salinity 36 seawater revealed that the sorption capacity varies considerably within the bay but can be attributed to the content of sedimentary P and Fe. It is known that both temperature and salinity influence the sorption process and their natural variations are the greatest in estuaries. To provide useful sorption parameters for modeling phosphate cycle in Florida Bay, a systematic study was carried out to quantify the effects of salinity and temperature on phosphate sorption on sediments. For a given sample, the zero equilibrium phosphate concentration and the distribution coefficient were measured over a range of salinity (2-72) and temperature (15-35 °C) conditions. Such a suite of experiments with combinations of different temperature and salinity were performed for 14 selected stations that cover a range of sediment characteristics and geographic locations of the bay. Phosphate sorption was found to increase with increasing temperature or decreasing salinity and their effects depended upon sediment's exchangeable P content. This study provided the first estimate of the phosphate sorption parameters as a function of salinity and temperature in marine sediments. Incorporation of these parameters in water quality models will enable them to predict the effect of increasing freshwater input, as proposed by the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, on the seasonal cycle of phosphate in Florida Bay.