Seasonal changes in arsenic speciation inFucus species

Arsenic speciation in a brown alga, Fucus gardneri, collected in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, was carried out by using high-performance liquid chromatography–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (HPLC–ICP–MS). Hydride generation–atomic absorption spectrometry (HG–AAS) was used for total arsenic determination. The relative amounts of some arsenosugars 1 in growing tips are found to be different in comparison with the remainder of the plant. Fucus samples collected in summer contain 9 ppm of total arsenic. Most of the arsenic species are extractable. Fucus samples collected in winter contain relatively higher amounts of arsenic, 16–22 ppm, but only low amounts of this are extractable.