Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India

Distribution of major and minor elements in the surface water of Southern Ocean near east Antarctica

 

 

Volume 58 Issue 2

Pawan Kumar Bharti, Bhupesh Sharma, Narendra Pal, R. K. Singh and A. K. Tyagi

10.6024/jmbai.2016.58.2.1918-01

Abstract

Distribution of major and minor element concentrations in Antarctic surface seawater samples was evaluated. Seawater samples were collected from eight sampling location in Southern Ocean from latitude S 67º16´10.9´´ and longitude E 28º39´64.5´´ to latitude S 69º17´42.9´´ and longitude E 76º13´23.3´´ and analyzed for various heavy metals like copper (Cu), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr). The concentrations of heavy metals Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn, Ni, Cr and other major elements like sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, boron were measured in selected seawater samples using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Spatial difference of the heavy metal concentrations in Antarctic seawater was negligible and their concentrations were in the order of Fe> Zn> Cu>Mn> Co>Pb>Ni>Cd.
The total concentrations of all selected metals were found slightly fluctuated in coastal water of east Antarctica. The results indicated that the concentrations of metals in seawater were found uniformly in entire selected stretch of Southern Ocean. Sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, boron and iron metals were found as the dominant constituents among the sea water contents. Aluminum (0.3-15.0 µg/cc), zinc (0.27-1.9 µg/cc), copper (0.04-0.23 µg/cc) and molybdenum (0.100.77 µg/cc) were also found in sufficient concentrations in all seawater samples. Strontium was also one of the dominant alkaline earth metals in sea water. However, the concentration of strontium (22.8-53.0 µg/cc) was found to be evenly distributed from Indian Bay to Larsemann Hills  in east Antarctica. Selenium and chromium were the rarest metals in seawater as these were below detection limit in all samples.

 

Keywords

Metals, seawater, Antarctica, Southern Ocean

Date : 30-10-2016