Trace Analysis of Marine Organisms: A Comparison of Activation Analysis and Conventional Methods 1

A comprehensive review has been made of the abundance values reported for all trace elements in seaweed, mollusks, crustaceans, fishes, and in sea water. The sensitivities of standard spectrophotometric and flame photometric techniques for such analyses have been compared with the sensitivities expected from activation analysis techniques. Activation analysis eliminates the problem of contamination by reagents and is particularly useful for the analysis of minute traces. While it is not an "all purpose" method for every element, it does show promise of increasing the detection sensitivity for a number of elements by factors of 10, 100, or more as well as making possible the discovery of elements not previously found in marine organisms, such as elements of the ruthenium or platinum groups and indium.