ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Biogeochemistry
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1538835
This article is part of the Research TopicHydrothermal and Submarine Volcanic Activity: Impacts on Ocean Chemistry and Plankton DynamicsView all 11 articles
Impact of Hydrothermal Activity on Marine Barium Isotope Composition: A Case Study from the Southwestern Indian Ocean
Provisionally accepted
- 1First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, China
- 2Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
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The cycling of barium (Ba) is closely linked to marine biogeochemical processes.Barium and its isotopes are commonly used as a tracer for marine productivity, seawater alkalinity, and ocean circulation. Mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal systems significantly impact marine chemistry, often acting as a key source of trace elements in deep seawater. However, the overall contribution of hydrothermal Ba to the global Ba cycle remains poorly quantified, and studies on hydrothermal Ba isotopes are limited, hindering a comprehensive understanding of the marine Ba cycle.This study investigated the concentration of dissolved Ba and other elements, and Ba isotope composition (δ 138 Ba) in the hydrothermal influenced water and sediment samples near Longqi and Tiancheng vents in the southwestern Indian Ocean for the first time. The vertical profiles of dissolved Ba and its isotope compositions mirrored each other in the southwestern Indian Ocean, which agreed well with previously reported results in other oceans. For the near-field water samples, the Ba isotope composition (-0.10 -0.05‰) is significantly lower than that of background seawater (~ 0.29‰), which indicate that lighter Ba isotopes are preferentially removed during the mixing of hydrothermal fluids with seawater. As a result, precipitated particles are expected to have a lighter Ba isotope composition, leading to Ba isotopic values in hydrothermal sediments (-0.16 -0.01‰) that are significantly lower than in background sediments (0.01 -0.14‰). This suggests that sediments can capture and preserve the hydrothermal Ba signal. These findings provide valuable insights into the influence of hydrothermal systems on the marine Ba cycle.
Keywords: Barium (Ba), Isotope composition, hydrothermal activity, Indian Ocean, Seawater, sediment
Received: 03 Dec 2024; Accepted: 26 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Li, Li, Xie, Wang and Shi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Li Li, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, China
Xuefa Shi, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, China
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