Understanding the formation mechanisms of polymeric silicates is essential to the study of microbiology and biogeochemistry. It has implications for the growth of diatoms and dinoflagellates and studying the processes that control the dissolution, precipitation, and biological uptake of different silicates species can provide an understanding of the occurrence of toxic blooms. This study examines the seasonal distribution of monomeric and polymeric silicates in the brackish and freshwater lakes of Japan. Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy was used to detect and quantify total dissolved silicates (TSi) and the spectrophotometric molybdenum blue method was used to detect molybdate reactive silicates (monomers to tetramers). The difference between the concentrations obtained via these two methods was used to determine the concentrations of polymeric silicates. Polymeric silicates were detected in anoxic-reducing pore waters from sediments of the freshwater Lake Biwa and Lake Kawaguchi in Japan, with a maximum concentration of 0.42 mmol L⁻¹. Polymeric silicate was continuously detected as long as the lake bottom environments remained under anoxic-reducing conditions. It provides insights on the formation mechanisms of polymeric silicates in freshwater lakes. The polymerization of silicates is understood to occur during the adsorption reaction between monomeric silicates and Fe(OH)₃ precipitate. Furthermore, this polymerization is deemed to be a dehydration condensation reaction because the silicates adsorbed on Fe(OH)₃ precipitate are situated at short distances from each other. In the anoxic-reducing environments, these monomeric and polymeric silicates are released from ferric hydroxide (Fe(OH)₃) precipitate by reacting with hydrogen sulfide.

了解聚合硅酸盐的形成机制对于微生物学和生物地球化学的研究至关重要。它对硅藻和甲藻的生长有影响，研究控制不同硅酸盐物种的溶解、沉淀和生物吸收的过程可以提供对有毒水华发生的理解。本研究调查了日本咸水湖和淡水湖中单体和聚合硅酸盐的季节性分布。电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱用于检测和量化总溶解硅酸盐 (TSi)，分光光度钼蓝法用于检测钼酸盐反应性硅酸盐（单体到四聚体）。通过这两种方法获得的浓度之间的差异用于确定聚合硅酸盐的浓度。在日本淡水琵琶湖和河口湖沉积物的缺氧还原孔隙水中检测到聚合硅酸盐，最大浓度为 0.42 mmol·L^-1。只要湖底环境保持在缺氧还原条件下，就会持续检测到聚合硅酸盐。它提供了淡水湖中聚合硅酸盐形成机制的见解。硅酸盐的聚合被认为发生在单体硅酸盐和 Fe(OH) ₃沉淀物之间的吸附反应期间。此外，这种聚合被认为是脱水缩合反应，因为吸附在 Fe(OH) ₃沉淀物上的硅酸盐彼此相距较近。在缺氧还原环境中，这些单体和聚合硅酸盐通过与硫化氢反应从氢氧化铁 (Fe(OH) _{3 ) 沉淀物中释放出来。}