Abstract
Abstract. The sea surface microlayer (SML) is an important biogeochemical system whose physico-chemical analysis often necessitates some degree of sample storage. However, many SML components degrade with time so the development of optimal storage protocols is paramount. We here briefly review some commonly used treatment and storage protocols. Using freshwater and saline SML samples from a river estuary, we investigated temporal changes in surfactant activity (SA) and the absorbance and fluorescence of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) over four weeks, following selected sample treatment and storage protocols. Some variability in the effectiveness of individual protocols most likely reflects sample provenance. None of the various protocols examined performed any better than dark storage at 4 °C without pre-treatment. We therefore recommend storing samples refrigerated in the dark.
Highlights
Dark storage at 4 ◦C without pre-treatment
We found that in all instances except CDOM E2 : E3 for samples treated with HgCl2, storage in either glass or polypropylene did not significantly affect our analytical results (SA p = 0.45, CDOM S p = 0.55, CDOM E2 : E3 for silver filter p = 0.74)
A storage experiment using SML samples of varying salinities and seven different storage protocols showed that measured surfactant activity and CDOM absorption and fluorescence all depended on sample provenance as well as initial sample treatment and subsequent storage times
Summary
Dark storage at 4 ◦C without pre-treatment. We rec- et al, 2001), which complicates study inter-comparison. To address this deficiency we examined the effects of several established storage protocols on the analysis of SA and CDOM absorbance and fluorescence in SML samples.
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