Li partitioning in the benthic foraminifera Amphistegina lessonii

Langer, Gerald and Sadekov, Aleksey and Thoms, Silke and Mewes, Antje and Nehrke, Gernot and Greaves, Mervyn and Misra, Sambuddha and Bijma, Jelle and Elderfield, Henry (2015) Li partitioning in the benthic foraminifera Amphistegina lessonii. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. n/a-n/a. ISSN 15252027 DOI 10.1002/2015GC006134

Preview	Text ggge20899.pdf - Published Version Download (297kB) | Preview
Preview	Image ggge20767-fig-0001.png - Published Version Download (169kB) | Preview

Abstract

The shallow water benthic foraminifer Amphistegina lessonii was grown in seawater of variable Li and Ca concentration and shell Li/Ca was determined by means of LA-ICPMS. Shell Li/Ca is positively correlated to seawater Li/Ca only when the Li concentration of seawater is changed. If the seawater Ca concentration is changed, shell Li/Ca remains constant. This indicates that Li does not compete with Ca for incorporation in the shell of A. lessonii. A recently proposed calcification model can be applied to divalent cations (e.g., Mg and Sr), which compete for binding sites of ion transporters and positions in the calcite lattice. By contrast, the transport pathway of monovalent cations such as Li is probably diffusion based (e.g., ion-channels), and monovalent cations do not compete with Ca for a position in the calcite lattice. Here we present a new model for Li partitioning into foraminiferal calcite which predicts our experimental results and should also be applicable to other alkali metals.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	2015AREP; IA70; weekly list
Subjects:	01 - Climate Change and Earth-Ocean Atmosphere Systems
Divisions:	01 - Climate Change and Earth-Ocean Atmosphere Systems 08 - Green Open Access
Journal or Publication Title:	Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
Page Range:	n/a-n/a
Identification Number:	10.1002/2015GC006134
Depositing User:	Sarah Humbert
Date Deposited:	17 Jan 2016 03:19
Last Modified:	31 Jul 2016 00:00
URI:	http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/id/eprint/3548

Actions (login required)

View Item