Effects of ligand speciation on determinations of the complexing abilities of strong ligands in natural waters

The presence of organic ligands (L) whose conditional stability constants (K_ML) are strong enough to allow them to form complexes with copper has been reported in oceanic waters. However, there is no general agreement on the distributional characteristics of such strong ligands in the water column. We present that these inconsistencies are derived from not only different analytical methods employed for their detection but also different oceanographic conditions. In particular, the nature and quantities of detectable natural ligands are affected by what kind of form the ligands are presentin situ in different marine environments, that is, chemical speciation of natural ligands (ligand speciation), which depends strongly on the variations in concentrations of coexisting trace metals. Using published data from observations in the laboratory and the field, we provide limits to the ranges of conditional stability constants of organic ligands for copper, zinc and cadmium that are detectable by the extensively used direct metal-titration method. For example, our model indicates that organic ligands for copper with log K_CuL(Cu)>12.4 in surface water and with log K_CuL(Cu)>9.9 in deep water might not have been detected because stronger ligands had formed complexes with ambient metalsin situ at a station in the North Pacific. The estimation suggests that there is a basinscale difference in speciation of natural organic ligands and, moreover, that this difference influences metal speciation. It is postulated that comparisons of the occurrence and levels of organic ligands might not be possible among spatially and temporally different observations without reconciliation of the effects of speciation of the ligands, even if an identical method is used in every case.