Study On The Compositions Of Some Metal Elements Of Marine Phytoplankton Samples From The Yellow Sea And The East China Sea In Spring

The ocean is an important passway for the material cycles of the earth system.Biogical production and processes of the transfer and transport of its products playimportant roles for biogeochemical cycle of elements in marine environments.Studying the principal constituents and the composition of metal elements in themarine phytoplankton from the Yellow and East China Seas has the vital significanceto researching the contribution of marine life production to marine particles andsediments, as well as the migration of metal elements.The phytoplankton samples were collected with plankton net from the Yellowand East China Seas in May,2009. A stepwise continues extraction method wasapplied to separate the major constitutes of the samples and to measured their contents,The contents and distribution of these major components, and the possible factorsinfluence their distribution were discussed. The concentrations of metal elements (Mg,Al, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ti, V, Mn, Fe and Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb) in different fractions weremeasured with ICP-AES, which are normalized by Ti and P. Through statisticalprocessing, the contribution of abiotic inputs or biological production to the elementswere understood. The main results are:The dominant component of the phytoplankton samples was organic matter,following with opal, while the content of calcium carbonate was the lowest coponentsin the Yellow and East China seas. The distribution of organic matter and opal of thephytoplankton samples showed an obvious pattern that low contents were in theregion far from the shore, while the high contents were near to the coast. The contentsof organic matter were uniform in the observed areas. The distribution of biogenic calcium carbonate increased slightly from the coast toward the east side (the open sea),which was opposite to the distribution of opal. This phenomenon indicated highdiatom biomass in the coastal areas and relatively high content of calcareousphytoplankton in the open seas.The contents of each metal element in the phytoplankton were showed differentbehaviour. The conents of many elements were higher in the samples near the coastare than those in the open sea (except for Zn). The contents of metal in each chemicalforms were different. The lithogenic source was more important for the metal Al, Fe,Mn, Mg, Sr and V, and biogenic elements were important for the metal Cu, Zn and Coin the Yellow Sea, Co, Ni, Cr, Cu, Zn and Ba in the East China Sea.The contents of metal in each chemical forms of the phytoplankton samples weredifferent between the Yellow and East China Seas. Fe, P, Mg and Zn were high inOSM (organic/sulfide matter) fraction. The content of Ca and Sr were dependencedwith the CARB (carbonate) fraction, and only the conent of Fe and Ba were detectedin abiotic slicion forms with ICP-AES.