Background: Eutrophication is a major threat to many coastal ecosystems worldwide. This paper deals with the sediment-water exchange of phosphorus, one of the elements that may stimulate primary production in the aquatic environment. The lack of phosphorus-binding capacity in sediments at low redox-potential is recognized as an important mechanism for eutrophication-related effects in some areas.

Methods: Twelve sediment cores were collected in the Baltic Proper between 61 m and 175 m water depth and a number of phosphorus fractions were analyzed. Integrating the concentrations over the depth profiles, the amounts of mobile phosphorus were estimated in each core.

Results: It was found that sediments below the redox cline in the Baltic Proper contained small amounts of mobile phosphorus. The total amount of mobile phosphorus in the entire Baltic Proper sediments below 65 m water depth was estimated to between 55,000 tonnes and 156,000 tonnes or between less than 10% to around 25% of the phosphate in the system (water plus sediments). This represents the maximum amount of phosphorus that could possibly be released to the water column from these areas. We argue that the most reasonable estimate of the pool of mobile phosphorus in the sediments is the lower number.

Conclusion: The amounts of mobile phosphorus in sediment cores with oxidized surface layers were higher compared with sediment cores with reduced surfaces, indicating that there is a potential phosphorus-binding capacity in sediments below the redox cline if oxic conditions improved. Oxygenation of the Baltic Proper bottom water between 65 m and 100 m could probably remove around 100,000 tonnes of phosphorus from the water column and reduce phosphorus concentrations in the deep water by on average 30 mg/m3, which would possibly be felt also in the surface water.