Determination of absolute coccolith abundances in deep-sea sediments by spiking with microbeads and spraying - SMS-method (Table 1)

A quick new method is described for the quantification of absolute nannofossil proportions in deep-sea sediments. This method (SMS) is the combination of Spiking a sample with Microbeads and Spraying it on a cover slide. It is suitable for scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses and for light microscope (LM) analyses. Repeated preparation and counting of the same sample (30 times) revealed a standard deviation of 10.5%. The application of tracer microbeads with different diameters and densities revealed no statistically significant differences between counts. The SMS-method yielded coccolith numbers that are statistically not significantly different from values obtained from the filtration-method. However, coccolith counts obtained by the random settling method are three times higher than the values obtained by the SMS- and the filtration-method.

本研究介绍了一种快速新型方法，用于定量深海沉积物中超微化石（nannofossil）的绝对占比。该方法（SMS）是将微珠（Microbeads）掺入样品并喷涂于盖玻片之上的组合技术，适用于扫描电子显微镜（SEM）与光学显微镜（LM）分析。对同一样本进行30次重复制样与计数后，结果显示其标准差为10.5%。使用不同直径与密度的示踪微珠开展实验后，各组计数结果未呈现统计学显著差异。SMS方法得到的颗石（coccolith）计数结果，与过滤法（filtration-method）所得数值无统计学显著差异。但随机沉降法（random settling method）获得的颗石计数结果，为SMS方法与过滤法所得数值的3倍。