Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1029/2020JG005887
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Direct‐push color logging images spatial heterogeneity of organic carbon in floodplain sediments
Author Klingler, S.; Cirpka, O.A.; Werban, U. ORCID logo ; Leven, C.; Dietrich, P. ORCID logo
Source Titel Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences
Year 2020
Department MET
Volume 125
Issue 12
Page From e2020JG005887
Language englisch
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Keywords direct‐push; color logging; colorfacies; peat; total organic carbon (TOC)
Abstract In soils and sediments, large amounts of total organic carbon (TOC) mark reducing conditions. As dark sediment colors are good predictors for high‐TOC zones, they indicate hotspots of biogeochemical turnover and microbial activity. Traditionally, obtaining the sediment color or TOC at depth requires costly core sampling, resulting in poor horizontal resolution and related uncertainty caused by interpolation. We suggest using a direct‐push tool for optical screening of the sediment color to acquire multiple high‐resolution vertical color profiles and demonstrate its applicability to a biogeochemical transition zone in floodplain sediments, dominated by tufa. We use Gaussian mixture models for a cluster analysis of 35 color logs in the CIE L*a*b* color space to identify three colorfacies that differ in lithology and TOC content: a dark colorfacies that agrees well with peat layers, a gray colorfacies associated with clay, and a creamy‐brown facies made of autochthonous carbonate precipitates. We test different approaches to either infer the TOC content from color metrics, namely the lightness and chroma, across all facies, or to identify TOC ranges for each colorfacies. Given the high variability in TOC due to organic‐carbon specks in the tufa, the latter approach appears more realistic. In our application we map the 3‐D distribution of organic matter in a floodplain in distinct facies over 20,000 m2 down to 12 m depth. While we relate the sediment color only to the TOC content, direct‐push color‐logging may also be used for in‐situ mapping of other biogeochemically relevant properties, such as the ferric‐iron content, or sedimentary structure.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=23949
Klingler, S., Cirpka, O.A., Werban, U., Leven, C., Dietrich, P. (2020):
Direct‐push color logging images spatial heterogeneity of organic carbon in floodplain sediments
J. Geophys. Res.-Biogeosci. 125 (12), e2020JG005887 10.1029/2020JG005887