Bioavailability of phosphorus of river sediments and its effect on growth of Selenastrum capricornutum

Abstract

Increasing anthropogenic loading of phosphorus (P) threatens aquatic ecosystems. The bioavailability of P in sediments for algal growth depends on several physiochemical properties such as silt, clay, mineralogy, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and carbonate-content. This study was aimed on selecting the best chemical extraction method to characterize P-availability for the algae Selenastrum capricornutum. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the data identified two components that cover 79.3% of the total variation, and these components were dominated by particle size distribution, active calcium carbonate equivalence (ACCE), and EC. Many of the considered extractions were positively correlated with each other, with the exception being Bray-