Principal Investigator: Edward M. Perdue (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Principal Investigator: J. Helmut Reuter (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Sponsor: GWRI
Start Date: 1969-07-01; Completion Date: 1971-12-31;
Keywords:
Description:
The rivers of southeast Georgia are rich in dark brown organic matter which resembles soil fulvic acids both in appearance and in chemical characteristics. The Satilla River system, draining out of the coastal plain, was sampled from the headwaters downstream to the freshwater-salt water interface. River water organic matter, obtained by freeze-drying the river water samples, was fractionated by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) into three molecular weight fractions. Both the unfractionated river water organic matter and the GPC fractions were characterized by chemical analysis of acidic functional groups (total acidity, carboxyl groups, and phenolic hydroxyl groups). The material was found to be highly acidic, with total acidity ranging from 11.3 to 16.6 meq/g. Carboxyl groups (6.9 to 10.7 meq/g.) accounted for much of the total acidity. The material was characterized by IR and NMR spectroscopy. The spectra are comparable to those of soil fulvic acids, but are distinctly different from the spectra of humic acids. The unfractionated material was hydrolyzed and the hydrolyzate was analyzed for amino acids. From the amino acid content, the percent nitrogen in river water organic matter was calculated to be less than one percent, which is in good agreement with values reported for soil fulvic acids (Schnitzer and Skinner, 1968).