The Organic Metabolism of Sea-water with Special Reference to the Ultimate Food Cycle in the Sea

Abstract

Studies are reported of the behaviour of stored sea-water with regard to oxygen, ammonia, and bacteria content in relation to the conditions of storage and to the effect of various filtration procedures.When sea-water is sterilised by filtration and stored in the dark, the oxygen content remains constant or diminishes only by less than 0·07c.c. per litre in several hundred hours.In non-sterile experiments there is always an oxygen consumption roughly parallel to a bacterial multiplication which begins very suddenly after collection of the water. These effects are greatest in “raw” water, less in paper-filtered water and least in water which is doubly filtered.