Premium
On the reactivity of metals for marine phytoplankton
Author(s) -
Fisher Nicholas S.
Publication year - 1986
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.1986.31.2.0443
Subject(s) - phytoplankton , environmental chemistry , metal , environmental science , solubility , residence time (fluid dynamics) , chemistry , oceanography , mineralogy , geology , nutrient , organic chemistry , geotechnical engineering
The concentration of metals by marine phytoplankton, assessed for diverse species in laboratory culture experiments with radiotracer methodology and taken together with literature values for other metals, was analyzed in light of geochemical models describing particle surface chemistry. Concentration factors vary among the metals from ≃0 to ≃10 6 , and there are only modest differences (less than an order of magnitude) among algal species for any particular metal. Regression analyses show that, at equilibrium, the logs of the concentration factors are exponentially related ( P < 0.001) to solubility products of metal hydroxides and to cytotoxicity and are linearly related ( P < 0.001) to the log of the mean oceanic residence times (years) of the metals. It would appear that concentration factors and toxicity of metals in marine phytoplankton and oceanic residence times of metals can be predicted to within an order of magnitude from the chemical literature.