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Plutonium uptake by marine phytoplankton in culture 1
Author(s) -
Fisher Nicholas S.,
Olson Brenda L.,
Bowens Vaughan T.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1980.25.5.0823
Subject(s) - seawater , thalassiosira pseudonana , environmental chemistry , phytoplankton , tracer , artificial seawater , chemistry , particle (ecology) , composition (language) , nuclear chemistry , biology , nutrient , ecology , physics , linguistics , philosophy , organic chemistry , nuclear physics
At environmentally realistic atom conscentrations 237 Pu tracer was used to examine Pu uptake by unialgal cultures of Thalassiosira pseudonana (live and dead), Thalassiosira sp., and Platymonas sp., as well as by glass particles. Live or dead cells and glass particles accumulated Pu at similar rates, indicating that initial uptake was a passive phenomenon. Uptake was strongly affected by the nature of particle surfaces, but much less by composition of the media. Cells from rapidly growing cultures took up more Pu than did those from late log or senescent cultures. Acid‐washed glass took up more Pu, faster, than did unwashed glass. Cells accumulated more Pu from UV‐treated seawater than from seawater untreated or enriched with f/50‐level EDTA or f/50 vitamins; from complete f/50 medium uptake was even less, as with f/50 trace metals + EDTA. After a short uptake Pu was 25% removable in tracer‐free media, but after 3 days of uptake none was removable in seawater or exometabolite media, and only 15% in f/50‐level EDTA. The data support the hypothesis that Pu in marine environments associates with suspended particles that could act as vertical vectors for this element.