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Copper in surface waters south of New Zealand

Abstract

THE sampling of the transition metals, including copper, in the ocean has so far produced unsatisfactory results. Reported measurements show quite a large scatter within a given suite of data and significant differences between investigators1–3. Published profiles in general look quite unlike any of the ‘accepted’ distributions for other dissolved species outlined later nor are there any close similarities between the transition elements themselves. Either they have a unique geochemistry or the data are to some degree invalid. For copper, contamination during sampling has been suggested4 as one source of error, and we have tried to overcome this by sampling surface waters in regions of marked horizontal gradients in chemical properties.

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BOYLE, E., EDMOND, J. Copper in surface waters south of New Zealand. Nature 253, 107–109 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/253107a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/253107a0

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