Abstract
231Pa and 230Th are two crucial isotopes in the ongoing GEOTRACES Project. However, the controversy on 231Pa/230Th proxy pertaining to archiving ocean circulation or recording paleoproductivity, is still unresolved, partly owing to the unclear understanding of fractionation between 231Pa and 230Th during adsorption. In this study, controlled experiments were conducted to examine the adsorption of 234Th and 233Pa onto biogenic particles (SiO2 and CaCO3), authigenic minerals (MnO2 and Fe2O3), and lithogenic minerals (kaolinite, attapulgite, montmorillonite, and aluminum oxyhydroxides), and the role of organic compounds in regulating the adsorption of 234Th and 233Pa in natural seawater was evaluated. The distribution coefficients (Kd, presented as logKd) varied from 3.56 to 6.05 and from 3.27 to 5.82 for 234Th and 233Pa, respectively. Fe2O3 is the strongest sorbent for both 234Th and 233Pa. Most of the particles showed comparable logKd values for either 234Th (∼4.8) or 233Pa (∼3.9) in the presence of dextran, indicating that the adsorption of Th and Pa is likely controlled by organic coating on particle surfaces. The fractionation factors (FTh/Pa) of SiO2 (3±1) and CaCO3 (33±1) suggest in situ observed preferential scavenging of 230Th to 231Pa in the surface water of low- to mid-latitude regions and the nearly equal removal in the Antarctic Ocean where biogenic silica dominates the particle regime. The FTh/Pa values of the lithogenic and biogenic particles indicate that 230Th is scavenged prior to 231Pa in the particle-scarce ocean interior. The equal scavenging of 230Th and 231Pa at the ocean margins and the ridge crests is dominated by high particle fluxes instead of particle composition control. These results imply that 230Th/231Pa can be used as different proxies in different oceanic settings.
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Data Availability Statement
The datasets generated in the current study are presented in Tables 1 & 2.
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The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions and Dr. Peng LIN for his help during the de-particle seawater preparation.
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Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 42076030, 41476061) and the National Key Basic Research Special Foundation Program of China (No. 2015CB452902)
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Zhang, X., Yang, W., Qiu, Y. et al. Adsorption of Th and Pa onto particles and the effect of organic compounds in natural seawater. J. Ocean. Limnol. 39, 2209–2219 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-021-0297-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-021-0297-5