A new study found that freshwater runoff from rivers and continental shelf sediments are bringing significant quantities of carbon and trace elements into parts of the Arctic Ocean
May / 05 / 2020
Multiple TEIs
A review constituting the half-way mark of GEOTRACES
After a brief reminder on the motivation and foundation processes of the international and ambitious programme GEOTRACES, Bob Anderson (2020, see reference below) proposes an overview of many results of GEOTRACES activities related to the three guiding themes of the programme: (1) fluxes and processes at ocean interfaces (2) internal cycling of TEIs, and 3) […]
Jan / 30 / 2020
Welcome to the first Korean participation in GEOTRACES
Thanks to the newly launched research vessel (R/V) Isabu of the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), and the acquisition of a contamination-free PRISTINE (NIOZ, NL) ultraclean seawater sampling system for trace elements, the Korean marine geochemists are pleased to published their first reliable trace metal (TM) results. Two cruises conducted in the Indian Ocean […]
Dec / 16 / 2019
About the decoupled fates of aluminium, manganese, cobalt and lead in the North Pacific Ocean
Did you know that each of these tracers could follow its own marine story, quite decoupled from the others? This is what is shown and discussed by Zheng and co-workers (2019, see reference below) after having analysed about 500 samples for aluminium (Al), manganese (Mn), lead (Pb) and cobalt (Co) along three sections in the […]
Apr / 24 / 2019
On the optimal use of the seaFAST system
Do you wish to improve your recoveries, blanks or any other parameter of your seawater preconcentration system (seaFAST)? Or are you simply curious about it? Wuttig and co-workers (2019, see reference below) propose a critical evaluation of this system’s capabilities. They perform an impressive list of tests including system conditioning, improving blank levels, finding the optimal […]
Apr / 18 / 2019
All the bioactive elements are not affected by the land-ocean gradient of the atmospheric deposition along the Eastern Pacific Zonal Transect
Atmospheric dust is considered an important source of trace elements to the ocean. As part of the Eastern Pacific Zonal Transect GEOTRACES cruise (EPZT GP16), Buck and co-workers collected 17 (3-day integrated) aerosol samples along this transect known for its low dust input. Chemical composition and elemental ratios indicate crustal sources for aluminium (Al), titanium […]
Feb / 13 / 2019
The residence times of trace elements determined in the surface Arctic Ocean during the 2015 US Arctic GEOTRACES expedition
Data collected during the US Arctic GEOTRACES expedition in 2015 (along GEOTRACES section GN01) were used to estimate the mean residence time of dissolved trace elements (iron-Fe, manganese-Mn, nickel-Ni, cadmium-Cd, sinc-Zn, copper-Cu, lead-Pb, vanadium-V) in surface water with respect to atmospheric deposition. The calculations utilized mixed layer trace element (TE) inventories, aerosol solubility determinations, and […]
Nov / 15 / 2018
Has the role of atmospheric dust as a control on productivity in oligotrophic regions been overestimated?
Dust particles settling into the surface of open ocean environments are for years assumed to provide nutrients to these distant nutrient-limited areas. Torfstein and Kienast (2018, see reference below) present a unique high-resolution coupling between dust concentrations (hourly resolution) and chlorophyll-a concentrations (daily time scale resolution) across a 4-year period in the deep, nutrient-poor water […]
Sep / 05 / 2018
Using ICPMS/MS to determine manganese, iron, nickel, copper, zinc, cadmium and lead concentrations on less than 40ml of seawater
Jackson and co-workers (2018, see reference below) first did a classical offline preconcentration of small seawater aliquots using a SeaFast system. More innovative is the use of a state of the art inductively coupled plasma – tandem mass spectrometry (ICPMS/MS) to analyse the eluate. Such tool combines two mass-selecting quadrupoles separated by an octopole collision/reaction […]
Apr / 30 / 2018