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Marine colloids

A neglected dimension

Nature volume 391, pages 530–531 (1998)Cite this article

Marine colloids are the most abundant particles in the oceans1,2. They account for 30-50% of the ‘dissolved’ organic carbon in sea water3,4 , and they also contain biologically essential metals5 . Although great strides have been made in assessing the bulk composition of the marine colloidal phase, there is little consensus about what processes regulate colloid cycling, or even what the ultimate fate of these substances is. The work of Chin et al. (page 568 of this issue6) adds a fresh perspective to these basic questions by invoking polymer gel theory to explain the behaviour of marine colloids. This insight is important because emerging evidence suggests that the marine colloidal phase is intrinsic to a variety of oceanographic processes, with potential ramifications running from the modulation of metal ion uptake by algae to global climate change.

Colloids lie at the boundary between soluble chemical species and sinking particles, and are defined as substances sized between about 1 and 1,000 nm in diameter. Particles in this range are large enough to acquire an interface (that is, the interior is chemically distinct from the surrounding medium) but small enough for gravity not to be the dominant force acting upon them. So removal of colloidal substances from sea water depends upon either their degradation to soluble components or their aggregation to form sinking macroparticles.

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Figure 1: Representations of the dynamic interplay between marine gel formation and microbial degradation in sea water.

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  1. the Institute of Marine Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, 95064, California, USA

    Mark L. Wells

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Wells, M. A neglected dimension. Nature 391, 530–531 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/35248

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