Articles | Volume 18, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-18-321-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-18-321-2022
Research article
 | 
17 Mar 2022
Research article |  | 17 Mar 2022

Occurrence of structural aluminium (Al) in marine diatom biological silica: visible evidence from microscopic analysis

Qian Tian, Dong Liu, Peng Yuan, Mengyuan Li, Weifeng Yang, Jieyu Zhou, Huihuang Wei, Junming Zhou, and Haozhe Guo

Cited articles

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Short summary
In this study, we present visible direct evidence for Al occurrence in biogenic silica (BSi). Homogeneous distribution of Al was shown in BSi, and the average Al / Si atomic ratio was 0.011. Considering structural Al has dissolution–inhibition for BSi, the fundamental results not only indicate the significant contribution of marine diatoms to the biogeochemical migration of marine Al, but also imply the contribution mechanism of Al on the carbon sequestration of marine diatoms.