Complexation of Cu,Zn and Cd by metabolites excreted from marine diatoms

The excretion of photosynthetically fixed carbon from cultured marine diatoms and its influence on Cu, Zn and Cd complexation in seawater was studied for three species. For each species, an isolate from oligotrophic waters was compared with an estuarine isolate. Complexation of metal was determined with the use of differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry. Excreted material from cells in log-phase growth complexed Cu > Zn > Cd, while material derived from senescent cells complexed only Zn. The filtrates of all cultures complexed these metals comparably with natural coastal seawater. There were no appreciable differences in complexing ability within or among species, suggesting that no excretion-complexation ‘strategy’ peculiar to each ecosystem exists among these species.