Behavior of beryllium in the weathering environment and its delivery to the ocean

Tracing Water Masses and Assessing Boundary Scavenging Intensity With Beryllium Isotopes in the Northern South China Sea

“…The high surface water 9 Be concentration with a diminishing pattern around the PRE in Figure 4b clearly points the Pearl River freshwater and plumes as a main 9 Be source of the northern SCS. The contribution of 9 Be from riverine dissolved load to the northern SCS was limited by dilution and scavenging processes (Suhrhoff et al, 2019). In the northern SCS, the negative relationship between 9 Be concentration and salinity reported in the Eurasian Basin (Frank et al, 2009) was not observed, which also indicates a strong non-conservative behavior of 9 Be in the northern SCS compared to the Arctic Ocean.…”

“…Riverine input is the main source of terrestrial 9 Be to seawater (von Blanckenburg & Bouchez, 2014). Released by silicate rock weathering, 9 Be is transported to the ocean mainly by river runoff in both dissolved and particulate forms (Suhrhoff et al, 2019). In river water, the dissolved 9 Be only accounts for a very small portion compared to the particulate form.…”

“…Besides its dissolved form, the 9 Be and 10 Be in reactive particulate phase would also control their distributions. Although beryllium isotopes are intensely scavenged on the shelf areas, at the same time the shelf sediments release terrigenous beryllium (mainly 9 Be) into seawater (Suhrhoff et al, 2019). The continuous exchange process between dissolved and particulate phases can result in a net reduction of the 10 Be/ 9 Be ratio before it reaches equilibrium on a timescale of 2-3 weeks (You et al, 1989).…”

Dissolved and Particulate Beryllium Isotopes in the Pearl River Estuary: Their Geochemical Behavior in Estuarine Water and Potential Contributions From Anthropogenic Sources

“…The stable isotope 9 Be are released from continental silicate weathering, and transported by river water to estuaries and seawater. The riverine input is the main source of 9 Be to seawater, while the dissolved load only accounts for 13-30% of marine 9 Be input (Suhrhoff et al, 2019). Thus, the ratio of 10 Be and 9 Be in seawater is determined by riverine input of 9 Be and downward flux of meteoric 10 Be (Kusakabe et al, 1991;von Blanckenburg and Bouchez, 2014).…”

“…The distribution/partition coefficient between particulate and dissolved phases (K d = S/C, where S and C represent concentrations of particulate Be per mass and in solution at equilibrium, respectively) is used to quantitatively describe distributions under thermodynamic equilibrium conditions (You et al, 1989). Within the applicable range, the K d of Be increase with pH significantly at pH values ≤6 (You et al, 1989;Brown et al, 1992b), and this increasing trend can extend up to pH∼8 (Suhrhoff et al, 2019). The K d also decreases with suspended load (Aldahan et al, 1999) as observed with heavy metals (Balls, 1989).…”