Abstract
A Role for Vanadium in Ascidians and in Marine Algae
Highlights
Vanadium is – next to molybdenum – the second-to-most abundant transition metal in sea water
The concentration can reach 0.7 mM. This effective accumulation of vanadium, occurring in the greater part of the ascidians, apparently is supported by bacterial genera such as Pseudomonas and Ralstoni, and Treponema and Borrelia [9,10,11,12] – a fact which is in line with the general ability of certain strains of bacteria from deep-sea hydrothermal vents that reduce vanadate to vanadium in the +IV state, using lactate as electron donor [13]
Several species of macro-algae in the marine environment (Figure 2) are able to catalyze the oxidation of the halide X (X = I, Br, Cl) to hypohalous acid [14,15,16,17], as exemplified for the bromide oxidation in eqn
Summary
Vanadium is – next to molybdenum – the second-to-most abundant transition metal in sea water. Oxygenated sea water commonly contains 24-45 μM of vanadate H2VO4ˉ (and is – next to molybdenum – the second-to-most abundant transition metal in sea water) with the levels mainly fluctuating with the season. The factors influencing the occurrence of vanadium are redox conditions Vanadate is mainly taken up by marine algae, the most prominent one being knotted wrack ( known as rockweed) Ascophyllum nodosum, (Figure 1), by ascidians and, to some extent, by some Polychaeta fan worms [2]. The significance of vanadium as an essential element in these organisms will be addressed
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