Measurement of protein-like fluorescence in river and waste water using a handheld spectrophotometer.
Protein-like fluorescence intensity in rivers increases with increasing anthropogenic DOM inputs from sewerage and farm wastes. Here, a portable luminescence spectrophotometer was used to investigate if this technology could be used to provide both field scientists with a rapid pollution monitoring tool and process control engineers with a portable waste water monitoring device, through the measurement of river and waste water tryptophan-like fluorescence from a range of rivers in NE England and from effluents from within two waste water treatment plants. The portable spectrophotometer determined that waste waters and sewerage effluents had the highest tryptophan-like fluorescence intensity, urban streams had an intermediate tryptophan-like fluorescence intensity, and the upstream river samples of good water quality the lowest tryptophan-like fluorescence intensity. Replicate samples demonstrated that fluorescence intensity is reproducible to +/- 20% for low fluorescence, 'clean' river water samples and +/- 5% for urban water and waste waters. Correlations between fluorescence measured by the portable spectrophotometer with a conventional bench machine were 0.91; (Spearman's rho, n = 143), demonstrating that the portable spectrophotometer does correlate with tryptophan-like fluorescence intensity measured using the bench spectrophotometer.
Baker
Andy
A
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. a.baker.2@bham.ac.uk
Ward
David
D
Lieten
Shakti H
SH
Periera
Ryan
R
Simpson
Ellie C
EC
Slater
Malcolm
M
D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005453:Fluorescence; D011506:Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D045483:Rivers; D013053:Spectrophotometry / Q000295:instrumentation; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D014881:Water Supply
D011506:Proteins