Changes in copper-complexing organic ligands during spring blooms in the coastal waters of Nova Scotia, Canada

Abstract

Organic materials able to complex ionic copper were extracted from seawater by a technique involving the saturation of complexing sites by the addition of excess ionic copper, followed by adsorption on a Sep-Pak C 18 column. Application of this technique to samples from a series of cruises on the Scotian Shelf covering 3 seasons demonstrated a correlation between biological activity, and particularly phytoplankton productivity, and ligand production. The complexing sites were associated with the polar fraction of organic materials, as determined by compound class separations using the Chromarod-Iatroscan technique.