Measuring Biogenic Silica of Marine Samples : its Situation and Prospect

Abstract

Silicon is an essential element in the ocean ecosystems, because it is required for the growth of diatoms which represent a major portion of primary producers. Measuring the biogenic silica(diatom silica) content in marine sediments and suspended matter reveals plenty of important information regarding to the ocean ecosystems and the biogeochemical cycle of silicon in the ocean. Several methods have been proposed to estimate biogenic silica in marine samples. Many of these techniques still have serious limitations depending on the amount of biogenic silica and the nature of the coexisting aluminosilicate compounds in samples. This paper summarized the common methods existing in literature, and finally a few comments on these advantages and limitations are described in brief.