A Manual of Chemical & Biological Methods for Seawater Analysis

189 Pages·1984·3.796 MB·English

by  Timothy R. Parsons (Auth.)

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A Manual of Chemical
and Biological Methods
for Seawater Analysis
by
TIMOTHY R. PARSONS
Department of Oceanography, University of British Columbia
Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1W5
YOSHIAKI MAITA
Research Institute of North Pacific Fisheries
Faculty of Fisheries, Hokkaido University, Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan
and
CAROL M. LALLI
Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1W5
PERGAMON PRESS
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FEDERAL REPUBLIC Pergamon Press GmbH, Hammerweg 6, D-6242
OF GERMANY KronbergTaunus, Federal Republic of Germany
Copyright © 1984 T. R. Parsons, Y. Maita and C. M. Lalli
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photo-
copying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
First edition 1984
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Parsons, Timothy Richard, 1932—
A manual of chemical and biological methods for seawater
analysis.
(Pergamon international library of science, technology, engineer-
ing, and social studies)
1. Seawater - Analysis. I. Maita, Yoshiaki, 1937- II. Lalli, Carol
M. III. Title. IV. Series.
GC101.2.P37 1984 551.46'01 83-23717
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Parsons, Timothy R.
A manual of chemical and biological methods for seawater
analysis.
1. Sea-water—Analysis
I. Title II. Maita, Yoshiaki III. Lalli, Carol M.
551.46'01 GC116
ISBN 0-08-030288-2 (Hardcover)
ISBN 0-08-030287-4 (Flexicover)
Printed in Great Britain by A. Wheaton & Co. Ltd. Exeter
Preface
The following text is intended to serve as an introduction to the quantitative
analysis of seawater. Biological and chemical techniques are described in
detail and these are believed to be among those most often used by biological
oceanographers. In general, the techniques require a minimum of prior
professional training; in addition, methods requiring the use of very expensive
equipment have been avoided. As such, it is intended that the techniques will
be useful to students, environmentalists and engineers as well as to some other
oceanographic disciplines.
The leadership of the late J.D.H. Strickland in publishing A Practical
Handbook of Seawater Analysis with the senior author of this text is
acknowledged, together with the publisher of the former text, The Fisheries
Research Board of Canada. The style in which many methods are described
here is similar to that in the Practical Handbook and some methods are
modified from the former book. New methods have been described,
particularly with respect to biology; in addition, a section has been written on
terms and equivalents which we believe will be useful to many biologists.
v
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to Ms. H. Dovey who prepared most of the figures
and to Dr. E.V. Grill who prepared Tables 4, 5 and 6. Dr. Grill also kindly
read and commented on the text to the authors prior to its submission for
publication. We also wish to thank Mr. H. Yoshida who helped in the testing
and modification of several methodologies. The work was sponsored by the
National Science and Engineering Research Council in direct response to a
request from the awards office.
vi
Caution
The authors strongly recommend that laboratory safety procedures should be
followed where necessary as prescribed in such references as Hazards in the
Chemical Laboratory, Ed. L. Bretherick, Publ. Royal Soc. Chem. (London),
3rd edition, 1981, 569 pp. Such safety procedures are especially important
when using strong acids, alkalis, oxidizing reagents, biological stains,
preservatives and radioactive materials.
vii
List of Figures
Figure 1. Dimensions of a nitrate reduction column 4
Figure 2. Analytical scheme for extraction and measurement of petro-
leum hydrocarbon 58
Figure 3. Electronic counting: coincidence correction chart for differ-
ent sized apertures 85
Figure 4. Electronic counting: size distribution of plastic spheres used
for the calibration of a 30-fi aperture 88
Figure 5. An example of a logarithmic size distribution of suspended
particulate material 92
Figure 6. Settling column for particulate material 95
Figure 7. The 0.95 confidence limits for the expectation of a Poisson
variable 158
xi
List of Tables
Table 1. Electronic counting: a grade scale based on particle
diameter in which particle volume varies by a factor of 2 in
successive grades 89
Table 2. Oxygen solubility of air in seawater 138
Table 3. Factors for total alkalinity measurement 144
Table 4. Total alkalinity calculation 144
Table 5. Conversion of total alkalinity to carbonate alkalinity 145
Table 6. The factor (FT) giving the total carbon dioxide content of
seawater when multiplied by the carbonate alkalinity 147
Table 7. Reagent concentrations and dilution factors for determina-
tion of sulfide-sulfur in different concentrations 150
Table 8. Composition of artificial seawater 159
Table 9. Composition in g/1 of two nutrient enriched solutions
160
Table 10. Sigma-t values where density is given as a function of
temperature and salinity
172
xii
General Notes on Analytical
Techniques
The following techniques can generally be employed with a minimum outlay
of capital equipment. Thus the use of a spectrophotometer, fluorometer,
microscopes, Coulter Counter and scintillation counter will cover most of the
methods. The use of more sophisticated equipment, such as gas/liquid
chromatograms, atomic absorption analyzers and mass spectrometers, is not
described since the operation of these pieces of equipment is usually
specialized and well described by company brochures. In addition, however,
some techniques are not described because there is equipment available which
specifically measures the property without requiring further detailed explana-
tions. Such equipment includes salinometers, light meters and Autoanalyzers®
(the latter being extensively adapted for nutrient analyses using basic
colorimetric techniques which are reproduced here). In other cases, the
measurement of a property may still be controversial and also require more
expensive equipment; this appears to be the case with dissolved organic
carbon (DOC) as discussed, for example, by Gershey et al. {Mar. Chem., 7:
289, 1979).
The techniques described here make considerable use of different kinds of
filters - our use of these filters is often made on the basis of the most readily
available, such as Millipore® filters; but for some purposes, the polycarbonate
Nuclepore® filters or glass fiber filters are superior to the cellulose nitrate
filters.
In nearly all the analyses some indication of the statistical reliability of the
technique is given such that the confidence limits quoted represent + 2a, and
this is given so that the mean of n determinations will be ±2a- /n with a
s
confidence of 95%.
In the spectrophotometric methods, the cell: cell blank of cuvettes is not
described as part of the procedure because it is assumed that samples,
standard and reagent blank will all be measured in a single sample cuvette.
The cell: cell blank then becomes part of the reagent blank. However, this
procedure should not preclude an independent examination of the variability
in reagent blanks by the analyst, particularly in respect to low level detection
of certain nutrients.
The text does not entirely follow the International System of Units for the
same reason that many scientists do not. Thus, while the basic unit of volume
xiii
xiv General Notes on Analytical Techniques
in the SI system is m\ it is still preferable from a pr3actical point of view to use
the allowed unit of a liter rather than the dm . The expression of many
concentrations in terms of amount per liter further leads to a difference of a
few percentage points (usually < 3%) between this concentration (e.g., for a
nutrient in /ig-at/1) and the salinity which is defined as the salts present in a
kilogram of seawater. For convenience of the analyst, however, this kind of
difference is small relative to the order of magnitude changes that occur in the
biological and chemical properties of seawater.
Methods given in this text are described in terms of procedures and not in
terms of interpretation of results. The latter is up to the individual
investigator; in some methods, reference material quoted may assist in the
interpretation of results.