The Distribution and Dynamics of Bioactive Metals Within the Marine Colloidal Phase

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The production of phytoplankton in the ocean is know to be limited under some circumstances by the amount of iron (and perhaps other trace metals) available to them. Not every chemical form of these trace metals can be utilized by these organisms. Since the most important of these from a biological standpoint is iron, which readily forms colloids in seawater, it is important from marine ecological and geochemical perspectives to understand how available colloidal is to the phytoplankton and how iron and other trace metals move into and out of the colloidal phase. In this project, the principal investigators will undertake a study of iron and six other biologically active trace metals in the waters of the continental shelf of central California. Using a relatively new technique called cross-flow filtration, the distribution of iron and the other trace metals in dissolved and colloidal phases (different size classes) will be examined. In particular the biological availability of iron and other trace metals in the colloidal phases will be investigated by running shipboard incubations and also by in situ comparisons of colloid-metal distributions and plankton production in the water column.