Mixed-layer sulfide, measurements

The technique recently applied by Cutter and Oatts (14) and Krahforst and Cutter (IS) to preliminary measurements of mixed layer sulfide was developed... 

The hydrogen sulfides (H2S, SH-, S2 and their metal complexes) are well known in restricted reducing regions of the world ocean such as anoxic basins (1), but they have traditionally been dismissed as unimportant for, or even nonexistent in, most oxic seawaters 12-41. Several lines of reasoning are now beginning to suggest that sulfides actually do exist in the surface ocean, and enter into a rich metal chemistiy there. Extensive measurements of carbonyl sulfide (OCS) in seawater (5.61 permit the quantification of a mixed layer source, the hydrolysis reactions f7-111... 

Carbonyl sulfide is the most abundant sulfur gas in the global background atmosphere because of its low reactivity in the troposphere and its correspondingly long residence time. It is the only sulfur compound that survives to enter the stratosphere. (An exception is the direct injection of SO2 into the stratosphere in volcanic eruptions.) In fact, the input of OCS into the stratosphere is considered to be responsible for the maintenance of the normal stratospheric sulfate aerosol layer. Measurements of atmospheric OCS mixing ratios and surface fluxes have been reviewed by Chin and Davis (1995). OCS exhibits an average tropospheric mixing ratio of about 500 ppt. 

A study in the tropical Atlantic by Williams et al. involved measuring acetone, methanol, acetonitrile and dimethyl sulfide within the atmospheric marine boundary layer and the upper ocean [116]. Measurements were taken on either side of the intertropical convergence zone. This zone, which sailors commonly refer to as the doldrums, is an area around the equator where the southeast and northeast trade winds meet. Consequently, it is a natural barrier to atmospheric mixing between the hemispheres. This results in hemispheric gradients for VOCs whose atmospheric lifetimes are shorter than interhemispheric mixing times... 

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