HR: 1340h
AN: H53G-1517 [Abstracts]
TI: Use of the "smart tracer" resazurin to identify biological activity and quantify sediment-water interaction in a stream in Catalonia, Spain
AU: * Haggerty, R
EM: haggertr@geo.oregonstate.edu
AF: Oregon State University, Dept. of Geosciences, 104 Wilkinson Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331-
5506, United States
AU: Martí, E
EM: eugenia@ceab.csic.es
AF: Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes, Accés a la Cala St. Frances 14, Blanes, 17300,
Spain
AU: Argerich, A
EM: alba@ceab.csic.es
AF: Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes, Accés a la Cala St. Frances 14, Blanes, 17300,
Spain
AU: Fonolla, P
EM: pfono_81@yahoo.es
AF: Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes, Accés a la Cala St. Frances 14, Blanes, 17300,
Spain
AU: Ribot, M
EM: filovirus@hotmail.com
AF: Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes, Accés a la Cala St. Frances 14, Blanes, 17300,
Spain
AU: von Schiller, D
EM: schiller@ceab.csic.es
AF: Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes, Accés a la Cala St. Frances 14, Blanes, 17300,
Spain
AB:
A smart tracer is a tracer that provides, directly or through measurement of its concentration or in combination
with another compound, at least 1 bit more information than a conservative tracer. In other words, the tracer
provides information about conditions in the hydrologic system in addition to arrival time – location history,
chemical conditions, biological activity, physical interactions, or other information. We have developed a smart
tracer for quantifying biological activity and sediment-water interaction in streams.
We will present a hands-on demonstration of the resazurin (Raz) test of biological activity and show results from
an injection of the tracer in the Riera de Santa Fe de Montseny, Catalonia, Spain. In the presence of living
bacteria (in many streams these are most common as biofilms on sediment), mildly fluorescent blue resazurin
reduces irreversibly to strongly fluorescent resorufin. Using the information provided by this reaction along a 125-
m stream reach, in conjunction with a chloride tracer, we were able to qualitatively identify bacterial growth and to
quantify sediment-water interactions.
DE: 0414 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling (0412, 0793, 1615, 4805, 4912)
DE: 0420 Biomolecular and chemical tracers
DE: 0448 Geomicrobiology
DE: 0471 Oxidation/reduction reactions (4851)
DE: 1830 Groundwater/surface water interaction
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting