Ecological significance of phosphomonoesters and phosphomonoesterase activity in a small Mediterranean river and its estuary

In 1998, the concentration of phosphomonoesters, a biologically available fraction of the dissolved organic phosphorus pool, was measured along Palmones River (a small Mediterranean river in Southern Spain) and its estuary. Due to the extremely low phosphomonoester concentration in the river (usually under detection limits by analytical procedures), a method using chromatographic cartridges to concentrate this compound was used. Phosphomonoester concentration was usually in the nanomolar range, although values up to 6 m were measured in a sampling station near an effluent of domestic sewage and a cellulose pulp plant. Concentrations were always lower than the dissolved reactive phosphorus (mostly orthophosphate). Phosphomonoesters represented a variable percentage of the dissolved organic phosphorus, from negligible percentages up to 56%. Besides, a highly significant correlation between these two phosphorus fractions was found.In addition, phosphomonoesterase (alkaline phosphatase) activity was measured in the water and macrophytobenthos (both algae and aquatic phanerogams) along the river and the estuary. In water, most of the phosphatase activity upstream was regarded as soluble. This was confirmed by the difficulty of performing kinetic studies in the unfiltered samples. On the contrary, the phosphomonoesterase activity in the estuary was attributed to different size fractions, suggesting that phosphomonoesters are used actively as a phosphate source by bacteria and phytoplankton, with relative contributions depending on the sampling period.