Host: Abstracts of Annual Meeting of the Geochemical Society of Japan
Pages 261-
In the hydrosphere, plankton is at the low end of the food chain, and its trace element concentration reflects the bioavailability in environment as well as biological requirements. Since the requirement evaluated by bulk composition collected by the plankton net does not distinguish plankton and detritus, it is not sufficient to explain the role plankton plays in the element circulation. The aim of this study is to establish the method of trace elements analysis of individual plankton cell using synchrotron X-ray micro beam. We made (i) element mapping of individual cells by μ-SXRF, and (ii) evaluation of the potential artifact using fixatives. As a result, major essential elements, such as S, P, and Ca were detected from all species. However, since the energy of fluorescence emitted from such elements is low, the detected X-ray counts were limited (＜ 10 cps). We should establish the method to estimate original fluorescence intensity by considering the attenuation of X-ray reaching the detector.
