CORRELATION OF ORGANIC CARBON CONTENT ESTIMATES AND HEAVY METALS CONCENTRATION IN LAKE SEDIMENT CORES: AN EXAMPLE FROM SPRINGWOOD LAKE, RICHMOND, INDIANA

Springwood Lake is a small lake in Richmond, Indiana, created for recreation purposes in the 1930s by confining a natural spring-fed wetland into an approximately 8-acre lake. The lake has historically been associated with environmental contamination including runoff from large-scale industrial/manufacturing facilities located in close proximity to the lake. Sediment cores were taken from the lake and analyzed for heavy metal content by ICP-AES and GFAAS. In addition, the organic content of the same sediment samples was analyzed using a relatively simple loss-on-ignition method to check for any correlation between estimated organic carbon content of the sample and heavy metal concentrations in the sediment. Our analysis shows that a quick estimate of the organic content of sediment samples using a loss on ignition method correlates well with concentrations of heavy metals at depth in the sediment core. This may indicate that time periods in which heavy metals loading occurs may correlate well with periods that are conducive to high organic carbon concentrations in lake environments.