Abstract
Marine ecosystem is increasingly deteriorating. In order to assess anthropogenic influence and instigate appropriate remedial actions, it is still of great significance to develop the technology of sensors applied for nutrient detection (e.g., nitrate, phosphate, and silicate) in seawater. This brief review shows an important direction for the development of nutrient detection sensors in seawater and also the limitations and challenges based on data from the ISI Web of Science database. Being different from previous review papers, in this short critical review paper (1) we unified the unit of limit of detection (LOD) for making the comparison within different researches possible; (2) only the literatures focusing on the technological development of sensors in seawater were used; and (3) not only the detection methods but also the detected analytes and publication years were discussed to supply more valuable information for the development of nutrient sensors applied in seawater. In total, 109 literatures were collected with regard to technological development. The quantity of literatures has increased most during 2011-2020. For analytes, literatures related to nitrate, phosphate, ammonium, and phosphate will continue to increase with more accurate data. For detection methods, spectrophotometry, colorimetry, fluorimetry, and electrochemistry are the most widely used sensors. LODs show thousands of orders. In general, there are lower LOD to nitrite and ammonium and fluorimetry method. Now, for analytes, nitrate 1.0983 > silicate 0.5495 > phosphate 0.4823 > ammonium 0.1324 > nitrite 0.0568 . For detection methods, microfluidics 1.7617 > electrochemistry 1.2607 > colorimetry 0.4462 > spectrophotometry 0.2941 > fluorimetry 0.0558 . This result indicated that the development level of detection methods is closer for nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, and silicate. For ammonium, spectrophotometry has significantly lower LOD than electrochemistry ( p < 0.05 ), and fluorimetry also has significantly lower LOD than electrochemistry ( p < 0.05 ). Our results imply that sensors with accurate LOD should be developed in the future. In addition, more detection methods should be considered by future sensors.
Highlights
In order to assess the impacts of these activities and instigate appropriate remedial actions, it is of great significance to develop the technology of sensors applied for ocean environmental monitoring, including the detection of chemical elements, physical elements, and biology
Being different from previous review papers, in this short critical review paper (1) we unified the unit of limit of detection (LOD) to make the comparison within different researches possible; (2) only the literatures focusing on the technological development of sensors in seawater were used; and (3) the detection methods and the detected analytes and publication years were discussed to supply more valuable information for the development of nutrient sensors applied in seawater
For a period of time, literatures related to nitrate, phosphate, ammonium, and phosphate will continue to increase with more accurate data and new detection methods
Summary
Despite the fact that oceans cover more than 70% of our planet and have a profound impact on global climate, weather patterns, human health, agriculture, and commerce [1, 2], human ability to make sustained measurements of ocean processes is limited and much of the oceans remain largely unexplored [3, 4]. Marine ecosystem is increasingly deteriorating due to continuous development and utilization of oceans by industrial pressures and growing. These ecosystems of coastal zones, estuaries, and gulfs have been gradually destroyed with different extents, such as dumping of waste, construction of harbours, dredging, and extraction processes [7, 8]. The work of ocean environmental monitoring is urgent and monitoring the concentration changes and spatiotemporal distribution of nutrients in ocean environments is significant. In order to assess the impacts of these activities and instigate appropriate remedial actions, it is of great significance to develop the technology of sensors applied for ocean environmental monitoring, including the detection of chemical elements (e.g., nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, ammonium, and silicate), physical elements (e.g., pH, DO, and heavy metals), and biology (e.g., phytoplankton, benthonic animal, and fish)
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