Abstract

Vertical profiles of total silver concentrations in the northeast and southeast Atlantic are oceanographically consistent with total dissolved (< 0.45 μm) silver concentration profiles in the North Pacific. These show that silver is a recycled element with low concentrations in surface waters (≤ 0.7 pM) and relatively high concentrations (7 pM) in deep waters (4600 m) of the Atlantic, and that there is a systematic enrichment of silver concentrations in deep waters from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific (> 20 pM). This nutrient-type distribution is further evidenced by the highly significant (p < 0.01, simple linear regression) correlation (R ≥ 0.916) of silver and silicate concentrations in both the North Pacific and eastern Atlantic.