Total contents of biophile elements such as C, N, P
etc. in the ocean should be constant owing to their longer residence time. This idea was proved to be true by using the dry combustionmethod of analysis of organic matters. In addition, it was found that the concentration of their inorganic and organic forms was expressed respectively as a sum of a constant term (the primary concentration) and a variable term (plus or minus).
In the upper layer from the surface to the depth of 1,000m, the variation of concentration of each element was determined mainly by organic production, while in the deeper layer, by oxidative decomposition.
Results of study in the Pacific Ocean showed that the total concentrations of C, Nand P in sea water were respectively 2,410, 48.2 and 3.48μg at/kg, and the respective primary concentrations were 2, 150, 20.2 and 1.58μg at/kg for inorganic forms, and 260, 28 and 1.9μg at/kgfor organic forms. The primary concentration was defined as the ideal concentration of a biophile lementof each form when there were no organic production and oxidative decomposition in the ocean.
The coefficients related to
AOU were 0.4, 0.043 and 0.0029 respectively for C, N and P. On the basis of above values, the ratios of concentration among these biophile elements in inorganic forms at different location and depth were calculated, the results of which agreed quite well with observations.
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