Work

Abundance of zinc isotopes as a marine biogeochemical tracer

Year: 2000

Type: article

Abstract: The Zn isotopic compositions of ferromanganese nodules, sediment trap samples, sediments, and organic reference samples have been analyzed by multiple collector inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS). The range of isotopic variations (1‰ for 66Zn/64Zn) is significant with respect to the analytical precision (0.04‰ at the 95% confidence level). Marine argillaceous sediments show rather constant values consistent with those of continental shales and loess and with the value of a basalt from Réunion Island. We infer that the depletion of the light Zn isotopes in marine particles and in ferromanganese nodules (presumably equilibrated with seawater) results from biological activity in the upper water column. The δ66Zn values of sediment trap samples collected near the upwelling off the coast of Mauritania (central Atlantic) show a seasonal isotopic fluctuation consistent with biological pumping during the high‐productivity period. Higher values of δ66Zn in nodules appear to be associated with the amplitude of seasonal variations rather than with the mean values of the biological productivity.

Source: Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems

DOI: 10.1029/1999gc000029

Authors: Chloé N. Maréchal, Emmanuel Nicolas, Chantal Douchet, Francis Albarède

Institutions: École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire de Sciences de la Terre, Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche, Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche-sur-Mer

Language: English

Topic: Geochemistry and Elemental Analysis

Subfield: Geochemistry and Petrology

Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Life below water

Open Access status: green

Funder: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University