Re-assessing the Influence of Particle-hosted Sulphide Precipitation on the Marine Cadmium Cycle

Authors

Gregory F. de Souza, Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology
Derek Vance, Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology
Matthias Sieber, University of South FloridaFollow
Tim M. Conway, University of South FloridaFollow
Susan H. Little, University College London

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2022

Keywords

GEOTRACES, Marine biogeochemistry, Southern Ocean, Cadmium sulfide, Oxygen-deficient zone, Cadmium isotopes

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2022.02.009

Abstract

It has been inferred that the marine distributions of the micronutrient cadmium (Cd) and its stable isotope composition (expressed as δ¹¹⁴Cd) bear widespread and unambiguous evidence for loss of Cd from the shallow water column through the formation of particle-associated cadmium sulphide (CdS) in oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). In this review, we bring together elemental and isotopic datasets from the dissolved and particulate Cd pools in order to unravel the multiple, overlapping controls on the distribution of Cd and δ¹¹⁴Cd, and demonstrate that the global dataset challenges this view. By far the most important control on the marine Cd distribution is the extreme plasticity in the cadmium:phosphorus (Cd:P) stoichiometry of biological uptake and, in consequence, particulate export. We show that δ¹¹⁴Cd systematics in low-latitude OMZs that have been taken to reflect Cd loss in fact come about mainly through the interaction between the physical circulation and the variable stoichiometry of biological Cd uptake at high and low latitudes; water-column evidence for Cd loss is thus much less widespread than has previously been inferred. Subtle but consistent signals in particulate elemental and dissolved isotopic data from the open tropical Atlantic and Pacific Oceans allow us to identify the signal of a Cd loss associated with the oxycline of the shallow tropical subsurface, as has previously been suggested. However, this Cd loss appears to be ubiquitous throughout the tropics, rather than confined to oxygen-poor waters, speaking against CdS formation as the driving mechanism. Although its true identity remains unknown, this tropical Cd loss may be related to biological activity. Finally, we show how the processes we consider – the remineralisation of biogenic particles with variable Cd:P stoichiometry, and ubiquitous tropical oxycline Cd loss – bear upon the role of particle-hosted CdS formation in the marine mass balance of Cd, which is likely to be much smaller than recent estimates have suggested.

Rights Information

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Was this content written or created while at USF?

Yes

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 322, p. 274-296

Scholar Commons Citation

de Souza, Gregory F.; Vance, Derek; Sieber, Matthias; Conway, Tim M.; and Little, Susan H., "Re-assessing the Influence of Particle-hosted Sulphide Precipitation on the Marine Cadmium Cycle" (2022). Marine Science Faculty Publications. 2476.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/2476