Oxygen Consumption of River Muds

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Abstract
The oxygen consumption of several river sediments, collected as undisturbed cores and determined using a polarographic respirometer, was a) independent of sediment depth at depths greater than about 2 cm; b) related to an exponential function of the oxygen concentration in the overlying water; c) greatest during epi-benthic algal blooms in March and April; d) increased by partial erosion. From experiments with mud cores exposed to water containing different concentrations of nitrate it was concluded that the consumption of oxygen was not affected by changing the nitrate concentration, that cores with high rates of oxygen consumption had high rates of nitrate consumption and that nitrate consumption was related to its concentration. Evidence is given of the importance of substrate in determining the oxygen consumption of some invertebrates and of the indirect effect of Chironomus larvae on mud metabolism. No correlation was found between oxygen consumption of muds and organic carbon content, chemical oxidizability, dehydrogenase activity, or bacterial counts.

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