The suspended matter in sea water and its seasonal changes as affecting the visual range of the Secchi disc

Abstract

In a previous paper (Armstrong & Atkins, 1950), 201. samples from International Hydrographic Station England No. 1 (EI), about 10 miles south-west of the Eddystone in the English Channel, were filtered through collodion membranes of 1.09μ average pore diameter (A.P.D.).Between June 1948 and November 1949 the residue from these surface samples, when dried and ignited, amounted to 0.45–2.77 g/m3(or parts per million). These deposits consisted of 55–17 % silica, 28–3 % ferric oxide, 20 to under 1 % of alumina, and 70 (or, excluding one high value, 29) to 9 % calcium carbonate. A few determinations of insoluble organic matter gave to 1.15–1.77 p.p.m. when dried at 100° C. Pettersson (1934b), using the glass niters of Schott (Jena), found 1.4 p.p.m. for the total organic and inorganic matter similarly dried, from surface water in the Gullmar Fjord during the spring outburst.