Automated Method Development for Measuring Trace Metals in the Open Ocean

• Main Author: Schwanger, Cassie
• Other Authors: Cullen, Jay T.
• Language: English; en
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Zone Fluidics; Copper; Chemiluminescence; Liquid-Liquid Extraction
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1828/4942

New approaches to the analysis of trace metal concentrations in seawater have the potential to advance the field of oceanography and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the marine biogeochemical cycles of trace metals and the processes regulating these cycles. Traditional oceanographic methods of trace metal analysis were developed several decades ago using benchtop liquid-liquid extraction (Danielson et al., 1978; Kinrade and Van Loon, 1974; Miller and Bruland, 1994; Moffett and Zika, 1987). More modern techniques utilize flow based solid phase extraction to eliminate the high ionic strength matrix to determine dissolved concentrations with great accuracy and precision but do not allow for the determination of metal speciation in solution (Wells and Bruland, 1998). The method developed here measures oceanographically relevant concentrations of copper (Cu) in seawater via chemiluminescence (Marshall et al., 2003 and Coale et al., 1992) and micro-molar levels of silver (Ag) colorimetrically after automated liquid-liquid extraction. The Zone Fluidics (Marshall et al., 2003) analyzer for trace Cu determined SAFe D2 standard seawater (www.geotraces.org) to be 1.77 nM Cu comparable to the expected consensus value. The method was used to determine dissolved Cu depth profiles for major stations along the Line P Time-series transect (48N 125W - 50N 145W) in the Pacific Ocean during February 2011. This method consumes less than 200 µL of sample and reagents and is performed in less than 3 minutes making it suitable for ship or lab based analysis. === Graduate === 0485 === 0425 === [e-mail]