Adsorption of Th and Pa onto particles and the effect of organic compounds in natural seawater -- Journal of Oceanology and Limnology,2021,39(6):2209-2219

	Cite this paper:
	Xinxing ZHANG, Weifeng YANG, Yusheng QIU, Minfang ZHENG. Adsorption of Th and Pa onto particles and the effect of organic compounds in natural seawater[J]. Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 2021, 39(6): 2209-2219

Adsorption of Th and Pa onto particles and the effect of organic compounds in natural seawater

Xinxing ZHANG^1,2, Weifeng YANG^1,3, Yusheng QIU¹, Minfang ZHENG¹

1 College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China;
2 North China Sea Environmental Monitoring Center, State Oceanic Administration, Qingdao 266033, China;
3 State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen 361102, China

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 (K_d, presented as logK_d) 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 logK_d 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 (F_Th/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 F_Th/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.

Key words: thorium|protactinium|paleoproductivity|circulation|particle dynamics

Received: 2020-08-01 Revised: 2020-11-25

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