Characterization of seawater organic matter carried by bubble‐generated aerosols1

Samples of organic matter were isolated from seawater of the North Atlantic Ocean and Halifax Harbour by a bubble adsorptive technique. The samples thus collected, representative of the organic materials important in the transport of geochemical species across the air‐sea interface, were characterized by exclusion chromatography, elemental analysis, stable carbon isotope analysis, and assays for “carbohydrate” and “protein” levels. The concentration of organic carbon in the aerosol samples was enriched relative to the original seawater samples by factors of 47–573. The chemical composition of the coastal samples varied with the seasons; the aerosols generally contained a higher proportion of low molecular weight compounds (41% < 500 mol wt) than those generated from oceanic water samples (10% < 500 mol wt). The influence of the Northeast Atlantic Current can be discerned in the composition of aerosols generated from North Atlantic surface waters.