Marine organisms, shells

Fig. 14.20). Magnesium occurs in seawater and as the mineral dolomite, CaCOyMgCO,. Calcium also occurs as CaCO in compressed deposits of the shells of ancient marine organisms and exoskeletons of tiny one-celled organisms these deposits include limestone, calcite, and chalk (a softer variety of calcium carbonate). 

Longinelli, A. 1965 Oxygen isotopic composition of orthophosphate from shells of living marine organisms. Nature 207 716-719. 

Many chemical reactions in seawater do not achieve equilibrium. The most notable are ones that involve marine organisms. Since organisms require energy, they cannot survive if their constituent biochemicals are at equilibrium. Equilibrium is also not likely to be achieved if some other process is adding or removing a chemical faster than equilibrium can be reattained. For example, calcium carbonate shells should spontaneously dissolve in deep ocean water, but some sink so fest that they can reach the sediments where they eventually become buried and, hence, preserved. In other words, the equilibrium approach is most applicable to reactions that attain equilibrium fester than any other competing processes acting on the chemical of interest. 

Although surfece waters are supersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate, abiogenic precipitation is imcommon, probably because of unfevorable kinetics. (The relatively rare formation of abiogenic calcite is discussed further in Chapter 18.) Marine organisms are able to overcome this kinetic barrier because they have enzymes that catalyze the precipitation reaction. Because fl declines with depth, organisms that deposit calcareous shells in deep waters, such as benthic foraminiferans, must expend more energy to create their hard parts as compared to surfece dwellers. 

The rain rate of BSi is dependent on (1) the rate of its production by marine organisms, (2) shell dissolution rates, and (3) the time required for a shell to reach the seafloor. High rates of production by siliceous plankton ensure a large supply of opal to the water column. The fraction reaching the seafloor is largest when transit times are shortest. Thus, shells that sink fastest will be preferentially preserved and a greater fraction of the particulate silica flux reaches sediments that lie in shallow waters. 

Aragonite A mineral form of calcium carbonate. It is more soluble than calcite. Some marine organisms, such as pteropods, deposit shells composed of aragonite. This mineral is also a common component of evaporites. 

Biogenous sediments Sediments that are composed of hard or soft parts, such as shells and tissues that were synthesized by marine organisms. 

The exoskeletons (protective shells) of insects and some marine organisms, such as crabs and shrimp, are made of chitin, a hard, resilient polysaccharide made of the monosaccharide A acetylglucosamine, as shown in Figure 13.5b. Wood varnish once contained chitin from the exoskeletons of insects. In powdered form, chitin is now finding use as a dietary fiber supplement. 

These geochemical tracers have been successfully applied to studies of the shells of a variety of marine organisms including bivalve and gastropod mollusks, ostracods, forams, brachiopods and solitary corals (47, 54, 57, 58). In the case of mollusk shells, for example, serial microsampling around the spiral whorls from earliest to oldest growth revealed sinusoidal variations in isotope ratios, which result from shell deposition in a seasonal environment (47, 50, 62-64). Our previous work showed this to be true of Olivella shells as well, where 8,sO levels fluctuate from warm summer temperatures to cold spring and winter temperatures (38). 

D., University of Delaware, unpublished data). Since these experiments were carried out with chitosan obtained from crab shells, further experiments with chitosan isolated from Mucor rouxii (47) will prove whether microbially produced chitosans are more effective elicitors for the biosynthesis of certain phytochemicals than those obtained from marine organisms. 

The main components of marine sediments are inorganic aluminosilicate minerals which are usually accumulated on the sea floor by river and other geological activities, and also skeletons and shells of marine organisms (mainly calcium carbonate and silica) [2]. Of course, some metal salts or particulates which precipitate from seawater form new minerals, e.g. manganese nodules [2]. The chemical compositions of the three principal types of sediments in the ocean are shown in Table 12 [105], Most of the sediments found in the deep-sea floor are mixtures of these three principal minerals. Study of the sediments in the oceans and seashores can provide important data related to geochemical, oceanographical or biological circulation and deposition of elements, formation and distribution of marine sediments, and exploitation of marine resources. 

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