Meteoric Be in bed-sediments of Ado and Yasu rivers flowing into Lake Biwa

Fujisawa, Jumpei*; Minami, Masayo*; Kokubu, Yoko   

To investigate grain size dependency on concentration of meteoric Be extracted from river bed-sediment, we analyzed the Be in bed-sediments of Yasu and Ado rivers flowing into Lake Biwa, Shiga Prefecture. Each of 5 grain size fractions was sequentially leached to extract Ex (Exchangeable), Am-Ox (amorphous oxy-hydroxide) and X-Ox (crystalline oxy-hydroxide) phases, respectively, and the Be concentrations of the leachates were measured. Most meteoric Be was located in the Am-Ox and X-Ox phases. The concentrations of bulk and extracted fractions decreased with increasing grain size. Furthermore, the bed-sediments from upper stream showed higher concentration than those from downstream, and this tendency was stronger in Yasu river than in Ado river. The difference between Yasu and Ado river sediments could be due to lower pH of water in Yasu river than in Ado river, that is, due to more partitioning of Be into water relative to sediment particles in Yasu river.