Gschwend%20thesis.pdf

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They found total n-alkanes (C6-C14) at 9-50 ng/kg and total aromatics
(C6-C8) at 20-450 ng/kg. Petroleum related sources were suggested for
these compounds as they correlate with the anthropogenic Cl and Cz hydro-
carbons.
We can derive some lessons from the little that is known regarding
volatile organic compounds in seawater. First, we now know that many
volatiles which are found in seawater have terrestrial sources and must
arri ve at the ocean via the atmosphere. Next, society's use and handling
of fossil fuels is responsible for large inputs of volatiles to the sea.
Biological and photochemical processes are thought to produce some vola-
tiles in seawater. Finally, individual concentration levels are typi-
cally in the ng/kg range for the open ocean and higher in coastal zones.
However, most of the above insight has been acquired for volatiles
which are not the subject of this thesis. Most of the volatile fraction dis-
cussed in this thesis has not been reported in seawater due to the ab-
sence of suitable techniques and equipment. This technology became
available only recently (e.g., Zlatkis et aL., 1973;Grob, 1973).
Sources for Volatile Organic Compounds Amenable to Study in this Work
Marine Algae
Ever since Haas (1935) demonstrated the
presence of methyl mercap-
tan (CH3SH) in Polysiphonia spp., workers have found other volatile
organic compounds in numerous marine algae. Armstron¡i and Boalch (1960)
demonstrated the liberation of large quantities of volatile materials
into culture media by algae~ In another early study, Cook et al. (1951)
found that a volatile compound was responsible for sperm attraction to
the eggs of Fucus spp.
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