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Copper uptake kinetics in diverse marine phytoplankton
Author(s) -
Quigg Antonietta,
Reinfelder John R.,
Fisher Nicholas S.
Publication year - 2006
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.2006.51.2.0893
Subject(s) - seawater , phytoplankton , copper , artificial seawater , environmental chemistry , coccolithophore , chemistry , synechococcus , algae , dinoflagellate , kinetics , botany , biology , cyanobacteria , nutrient , ecology , genetics , quantum mechanics , bacteria , physics , organic chemistry
We measured short‐term uptake rates of copper using the gamma‐emitting radioisotope 67 Cu in seven algal species in natural and artificial seawater. Cellular net uptake of Cu was typically rapid over periods of 2‐20 min. Net uptake ceased after about 60 min. The most copper‐sensitive species examined, Synechococcus sp., exhibited 2‐3 orders of magnitude higher carbon and surface‐area‐normalized Cu‐accumulation rates (46 µmol Cu mol C ‐1 min ‐1 and 1,100 zmol Cu µm ‐2 min ‐1 ) (zmol = 10 ‐21 moles) than those measured in diatoms, chlorophytes, a dinoflagellate, and a coccolithophore. Cu‐accumulation rates for Thalassiosira weissflogii were three times faster in natural seawater than in EDTA‐buffered artificial seawater containing an inorganic Cu concentration of 28 pmol L ‐1 . Calculations showing that the diffusive flux of inorganic Cu was insufficient to account for observed short‐term uptake rates suggest that some of the Cu bound to naturally occurring organic ligands is released through the rapid dissociation of those complexes in the cell‘s boundary layer.