The speciation of most biologically active trace metals in seawater is dominated by complexation by organic ligands. This review traces the history of work in this area, from the early observations that showed surprisingly poor recoveries using metal preconcentration protocols to the present day, where advances in mass spectroscopy and stable isotope geochemistry are providing new insights into the structure, origin, fate, and biogeochemical impact of organic ligands. Many long-standing hypotheses about the specific biological origin of ligands such as siderophores in seawater are finally being validated. This work has revealed the complexity of organic complexation, with multiple ligands and, in some cases, timescales of ligand exchange that are much slower than originally thought. The influence of organic complexation on scavenging is now a key parameter in biogeochemical models of biologically essential metals, especially iron. New insights about the sources and sinks of ligands are required to enhance the usefulness of these models.

中文翻译：

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海水中的金属有机络合：历史背景和未来方向


海水中大多数具有生物活性的痕量金属的形态主要是通过有机配体的络合作用。这篇综述追溯了这一领域的工作历史，从早期的观察到使用金属预富集方案的回收率令人惊讶地差，直到今天，质谱和稳定同位素地球化学的进步为结构、起源、命运提供了新的见解。和有机配体的生物地球化学影响。许多关于配体（例如海水中的铁载体）的特定生物起源的长期假设终于得到验证。这项工作揭示了有机络合的复杂性，涉及多个配体，并且在某些情况下，配体交换的时间尺度比最初想象的要慢得多。有机络合对清除的影响现在是生物必需金属（尤其是铁）的生物地球化学模型中的关键参数。为了增强这些模型的实用性，需要对配体的来源和汇有新的见解。