Abstract
ALMOST all lead data for the marine environment are inaccurate, contends Patterson1, because of gross contamination from faulty sampling and analytical procedures. Most marine chemists assume that similar problems are associated with other trace elements as well. Hence, clean sampling and analytical techniques have been adopted. These procedures, in conjunction with the improvement of analytical instrumentation, have resulted in reports on Cu, Ni and Cd (refs 2–4; 3, 5; and 3, 6–8 respectively) levels in seawater that are at least an order of magnitude lower than those previously thought to exist. We report here that Zn concentrations (10–600 ng l−1) are also considerably lower than previously published estimates of 1–30 µg l−1 and that its vertical distribution (surface depletion, deep enrichment) is very similar to that of a major plant nutrient; that is, silicate.
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References
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BRULAND, K., KNAUER, G. & MARTIN, J. Zinc in north-east Pacific water. Nature 271, 741–743 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/271741a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/271741a0
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