Production and speciation of hydrogen sulfide in surface waters of the high latitude North Atlantic Ocean

During the August 1993 Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commissionʹs Contaminant Baseline Survey cruise to the high latitude North Atlantic, determinations of total dissolved sulfide (TDS=free sulfide, H2S(g)+HS−+S2−, plus dissolved metal–sulfide complexes), free sulfide, and carbonyl sulfide (OCS) were made along a horizontal transect and at six vertical profile stations. Unlike data from lower latitudes, the distributions of OCS and TDS were remarkably uniform, with surface water OCS averaging 108 pmol/l and TDS averaging 58 pmol/l; free sulfide was below the detection limits of 5 pmol/l at all stations. The vertical profiles of both OCS and TDS show surface maxima and rapid decreases into the major thermocline. For OCS this is indicative of production via photolysis of dissolved organic sulfur compounds, while TDS may be produced from the hydrolysis of OCS. The concentrations of OCS are similar to those found in coastal waters, and suggests that these sub-polar regions may be large OCS sources to the troposphere during summer. However, it is unclear whether higher concentrations of OCS precursors, a long photo period during summer, or slow rates of removal by hydrolysis due to low temperatures are responsible for the elevated OCS levels. TDS concentrations are primarily controlled by the rate of OCS hydrolysis, production by phytoplankton, and oxidative loss by oxygen and iodate. Both of the losses are affected by trace metal complexation, and to examine this, freshly collected seawater was amended by hydrogen sulfide gas and trace metal additions, and the concentration of free sulfide monitored as a function of metal concentration. This allowed the determinations of conditional stability constants for metal sulfides, with the log Kcond of Cd(HS)+ being 8.0±0.5, 7.0±0.6 for Ni(HS)+, and 7.4±0.7 for Zn(HS)+; attempts at measuring the Kcond of Cu(HS)+ were thwarted by the apparent reduction of Cu(II) to Cu(I) by sulfide. Using these constants in an equilibrium speciation model indicates that on average about 75% of the measured TDS was free, with the remaining fraction complexed with Ni, Cd, and Zn (in order of decreasing percentages). While closer to the field observations than would be found with stability constants reported by other workers, these values are still at variance with the actual speciation (i.e., <30% free). This suggests that the stability constants for Cd, Ni, and Zn are somewhat higher than found, thus reducing the concentration of free sulfide. Nevertheless, these speciation data are important for balancing the TDS budget since the loss by iodate oxidation of free sulfide exceeds all production estimates.