Flow injection chemistries for the in situ monitoring of nutrients in sea water

Abstract

In order to investigate the biogeochemistry of aquatic ecosystems, a quantitative knowledge of nutrient status i.e. spatial and temporal distribution, and primary production is necessary. This thesis describes chemistries for the determination of the major nutrient species, nitrate (as total oxidised nitrogen minus nitrite) and phosphate (as orthophosphate) using Flow Injection (FI) analysis. Chapter One describes the role of nitrogen and phosphorus in the aquatic environment and overviews laboratory and in situ methods for their determination. Chapter Two describes the development and optimisation of an FI method for the determination of nitrate in natural waters of varying salinity (0-3 5 %o).