Dimethyl sulfide production in a saline eutrophic lake, Salton Sea, California

Abstract

The concentrations and distribution of volatile organic sulfur compounds were quantified over a 13-month period in the Salton Sea, a warm eutrophic saline lake in Southern California, U.S.A. The concentrations of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) appear to be the highest reported thus far for a natural body of water, with an average surface (0-2 m) concentration of 2.5 mmol L 21 . DMS concentrations as high as 11 mmol L 21 were measured, and the concentrations of DMS correlated strongly with chlorophyll a (r 2 5 0.62, n 5 265, p , 0.05). Dimethyl disulfide was also measured; concentrations were much lower than DMS and often below detection (,0.01-0.32 mmol L 21 ). Carbon disulfide concentrations were low (,0.03 mmol L 21 ) and associated with strongly reduced conditions. Very high concentrations of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), an osmolyte in marine algae, were also measured (average total DMSP of 2.4 mmol L 21 ), with concentrations strongly correlated with chlorophyll a (r 2 5 0.88, n 5 36, p , 0.05). The biomass of the Salton Sea is composed mostly of marine phytoplankton species that are high DMSP producers; based on the correlations of DMS, chlorophyll a, and DMSP, it appears that the DMS in the Salton Sea is directly linked to algal biomass through DMSP. As a result of its very high DMS concentrations, the average estimated volatilization at the Salton Sea (480 mmol m 22 d 21 ) was greater than estimates for other lakes and the open ocean. We calculate ,9.6 3 10 5 mol of DMS was volatilized off the surface of the Sea during the course of this study.

Plant volatiles in extreme terrestrial and marine environments

“…), Antarctic lakes (Gibson et al . ) and the inland Salton Sea (salinity of 4.8%), which is also eutrophic and has an average surface DMS concentration of 2500 n m with a maximum of 11 000 n m corresponding to high algal biomass (Reese & Anderson ). Thus, there is a clear correlation with salinity, production of DMSP as, inter alia , an osmoprotectant, and DMS release from microbial degradation of DMSP.…”

“…Thus, isoprene production is high at extreme salinities, and given the global abundance of hypersaline environments, particularly vast inland salt pans, they should be considered in regional isoprene budgets. Similarly, the contribution of hypersaline environments to emissions of other VOCs may be globally significant; the aforementioned inland Salton Sea (980 km 2 ), for example, releases as much DMS annually as an area of the ocean equivalent in size to the Bering Sea (800 000 km 2 ; Reese & Anderson ).…”

The Great Salt Lake Ecosystem (Utah, USA): long term data and a structural equation approach

“…Climate change will reduce lake volume, increase salinity and temperature, and make oligomixis less important so that all of the concomitant effects described above could emerge sooner and be exacerbated. Finally, the more frequent mixing will increase the incidence of gas releases (e.g., sulfides) from lake sediments that are annoying to people today, making public complaints more frequent and intense (Reese and Anderson 2009).…”

Photochemical production of carbonyl sulfide, carbon disulfide and dimethyl sulfide in a lake water

“…Once released in the atmosphere, DMS rapidly reacts with radicals (OH and NO 3 ) leading to sulfate aerosols which can scatter solar radiation and act as cloud condensation nuclei that are potentially important in regulating climate (Charlson et al, 1987;Faloona et al, 2005;Gondwe et al, 2003;Pandis et al, 1994). The known sources of DMS are from oceans (Bates et al, 1987;Kettle and Andreae, 2000), lakes (Reese and Anderson, 2009), salt marshes and estuaries (Steudler and Peterson, 1984), vegetation (Fall et al, 1988), soils (Geng and Mu, 2004;Yang et al, 1996) and freshwater wetlands (Hines et al, 1993), and the major sinks are reactions with OH radicals in daytime and with NO 3 radicals in the nighttime (Atkinson et al, 1984;Wilson and Hirst, 1996).…”