Occurrence of structural aluminum (Al) in marine diatom biological
silica: Visible evidence from microscopic analysis
Abstract
The global marine biogeochemical cycle of aluminum (Al) is believed to
be driven by marine diatoms, due to the uptake of dissolved Al (DAl) by
living diatoms from surface seawater. However, whether or not Al is
incorporated into the structure of biogenic silica (BSi) of living
marine diatoms is still unclear, which hinders the understanding of Al
biogeochemical processes. In this study, visible evidence of structural
Al in BSi of the living marine diatom, for the first time, was
presented. The direct evidence is obtained based on the observation for
the Thalassiosira weissflogii, a widely distributed marine diatom by
focused ion beam (FIB) scanning electron microscopy and energy
dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The structural Al exhibited a
homogeneous distribution in the BSi with the average Al/Si atomic ratio
of 0.011. The fundamental results indicate the significant contribution
of marine diatoms to the biogeochemical migration of marine Al.