Abstract
Measurements of several sulphur gases have been made in coastal seawaters (including microlayers) and marine air off Great Yarmouth, U.K., and in a freshwater lake. The results show dimethyl sulphide to be the dominant sulphur gas in all the waters examined, with lesser amounts of carbonyl sulphide and carbon disulphide. For the marine air and water samples carbonyl sulphide showed no significant seasonal variation in concentration. The seawater was always supersaturated with respect to the carbonyl sulphide concentration in the air; the mean saturation value being 4.6. Likewise the seawater was always supersaturated with dimethyl sulphide, but for this gas the concentrations in the water showed substantial seasonal variation (× 40), with a maximum value of about 500 ng(S) l-1 in late June, approximately contemporaneous with the second plankton bloom in the region.
Sea surface microlayers harvested cryogenically showed a mean enrichment of 2.4 relative to subsurface water for carbonyl sulphide. Some part of the observed microlayer enrichment for this gas may be due to freezing-on of atmospheric carbonyl sulphide onto the frozen microlayer sample. In general, microlayer samples did not exhibit a significant enrichment for dimethyl sulphide. However, under conditions of high biological production, enrichments of several-fold were found, but may be attributable, at least in part, to biological production of dimethyl sulphide in the microlayer water in the period between collection and analysis.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andreae M. O. and Raemdonck H., 1983, Dimethyl sulfide in the surface ocean and the marine atmosphere: a global view, Science 221, 744–747.
Andreae, M. O., Barnard, W. R., and Ammons, J. M., 1983, The biological production of dimethyl-sulfide in the ocean and its role in the global atmospheric sulfur budget, in R. Hallberg (ed.), Environmental Biogeochemistry, Ecol. Bull. (Stockholm) Vol. 35, pp. 167–177.
Barnard W. R., Andreae M. O., Watkins W. E., Bingemer H., and Georgii H.-W., 1982, The flux of dimethylsulfide from the oceans to the atmosphere, J. Geophys. Res. 87, 8787–8793.
Ferek R. J. and Andreae M. O., 1983, The supersaturation of carbonyl sulfide in surface waters of the Pacific Ocean off Peru, Geophys. Res. Lett. 10, 393–396.
Ferek R. J. and Andreae M. O., 1984, Photochemical production of carbonyl sulphide in marine surface waters, Nature 307, 148–150.
Garrett W. G., 1965, Collection of slick-forming materials from the sea surface, Limnol. Oceanogr. 10, 602–605.
Ishida Y., 1968, Physiological studies on evolution of dimethyl sulfide from unicellular marine algae, Memoirs of the College of Agriculture, Kyoto University 94, 47–82.
Jones B. M. R., Cox R. A., and Penkett S. A., 1983, Atmospheric chemistry of carbon disulphide, J. Atmos. Chem. 1, 65–86.
Liss, P. S., 1985, Chemical processes near the surface of the sea, Paper presented at NATO ARI on Dynamic Processes in the Chemistry of the Upper Oceans, Jouy-en-Josas, France, July, 1983 — conference proceedings to be published by Plenum Press.
Nguyen B. C., Gaudry A., Bonsang B., and Lambert G., 1978, Reevaluation of the role of dimethyl sulphide in the sulphur budget, Nature 275, 637–639.
Rasmussen R. A., Khalil M. A. K., and Hoyt S. D., 1982a, Atmospheric carbonyl sulfide (OCS): Techniques for measurement in air and water, Chemosphere 11, 869–875.
Rasmussen R. A., Khalil M. A. K. and Hoyt S. D., 1982b, The oceanic source of carbonyl sulphide (OCS), Atmos. Environ. 16, 1591–1594.
Shaw G. E., 1983, Bio-controlled thermostatis involving the sulfur cycle, Climatic Change 5, 297–303.
Sze N. D. and Ko M. K. W., 1979, CS2 and COS in the stratospheric sulphur budget, Nature 280, 308–310.
Turco R. P., Whitten R. C., Toon O. B., Pollack J. B., and Hammill P., 1980, OCS, stratospheric aerosols and climate, Nature 283, 283–286.
Zehnder A. J. B. and Zinder S. H., 1980, The sulfur cycle. in O. Hutzinger (ed.), The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, Vol. 1 Part A, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 105–145.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Turner, S.M., Liss, P.S. Measurements of various sulphur gases in a coastal marine environment. J Atmos Chem 2, 223–232 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00051074
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00051074