Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T18:22:50.415Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Absorption of Zinc and Other Metals by the Brown Seaweed Laminaria Digitata

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

G. W. Bryan
Affiliation:
The Plymouth Laboratory

Extract

The absorption of zinc has been studied in the brown seaweed Laminaria digitata (Huds.) Lamour., with use of the radionuclide 65Zn and atomic absorption analysis. No evidence of the regulation of zinc by the plant has been found. Absorption of zinc or 65Zn is a gradual process of accumulation which may continue throughout the life of the plant and is not accompanied by the exchange of zinc. As a result, once it has been absorbed, zinc or 65Zn shows little tendency to be lost from the plant. The amounts of zinc or 65Zn which can be accumulated from sea water containing different concentrations of zinc and the effects on these of growth, light and competition from other metals have been studied. Possible sites at which zinc might be bound have been discussed, and the experimental results have been compared with the situation found in the field.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Black, W. A. P. & Mitchell, R. L., 1952. Trace elements in the common brown algae and sea water. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 30, pp. 575–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolter, E., Turekian, K. K. & Schutz, D. F., 1964. The distribution of rubidium, cesium and barium in the oceans. Geochim. cosmochim. Acta, Vol. 28, pp. 1459–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowness, J. M., Morton, R. A., Shakir, M. H. & Stubbs, A. L., 1952. Distribution of copper and zinc in mammalian eyes. Occurrence of metals in melanin fractions from eye tissues. Biochem. J., Vol. 51, pp. 521–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brooks, R. R., Presley, B. J. & Kaplan, I. R., 1967. APDC-MIBK extraction system for the determination of trace elements in saline waters by atomic-absorption spectrophotometry. Talanta, Vol. 14, pp. 809–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bryan, G. W., 1964. Zinc regulation in the lobster Homarus vulgaris. I. Tissue zinc and copper concentrations. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 44, pp. 549–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryan, G. W., 1966. The metabolism of Zn and 65Zn in crabs, lobsters and freshwater crayfish. Symp. Radioecological concentration Processes, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 1005–16. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Bryan, G. W., 1968. Concentrations of zinc and copper in the tissues of decapod crustaceans. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 48, pp. 303–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryan, G. W., Preston, A. & Templeton, W. L., 1966. Accumulation of radionuclides by aquatic organisms of economic importance in the United Kingdom. In Disposal of Radioactive Wastes in Seas, Oceans and Surface Waters, pp. 623–37. I.A.E.A., Vienna.Google Scholar
Chipman, W. A., Rice, T. R. & Price, T. J., 1958. Uptake and accumulation of radioactive zinc by marine plankton, fish and shellfish. Fish Bull., U.S., Vol. 58, pp. 279–92 (No. 135).Google Scholar
Gutnecht, J., 1963. 65Zn uptake by benthic marine algae. Limnol. Oceanogr., Vol. 8, pp. 31–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutnecht, J., 1965. Uptake and retention of cesium 137 and zinc 65 by seaweeds. Limnol. Oceanogr., Vol. 10, pp. 5866.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haug, A., 1961. The affinity of some divalent metals to different types of alginates. Acta chem. scand., Vol. 15, pp. 1794–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haug, A. & Smidsrod, O., 1967. Strontium, calcium and magnesium in brown algae. Nature, Lond., Vol. 215, pp. 1167–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mauchline, J. & Templeton, W. L., 1966. Strontium, calcium and barium in marine organisms from the Irish Sea. J. Cons. perm. int. Explor. Mer, Vol. 30, pp. 161–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Percival, E. & Mcdowell, R. H., 1967. Chemistry and Enzymology of Marine Algal Polysaccharides. London: Academic Press Inc.Google Scholar
Sandell, E. B., 1944. Colorimetric Determination of Traces of Metals. New York: Interscience.Google Scholar
Young, E. G. & Langille, W. M., 1958. The occurrence of inorganic elements in marine algae of the Atlantic provinces of Canada. Can. J. Bot., Vol. 36, pp. 301–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar