APPENDIX A: 

 NOTES ON ANALYTICAL METHODS 



Micrometer Respirometer 



The pneumatophore within the reaction vessel of the 

 micrometer respirometer (fig. 5 in main text) floats in the 

 seawater in such a way that occasionally a portion of its 

 surface is above water. Since the total surface of the pneu- 

 matophore diffuses gas, some carbon monoxide will escape 

 through the float membranes and adhering liquid and go 

 directly to the gas phase within the chamber, while some, 

 generally the greater part, will diffuse first into the sea- 

 water. 



Assuming the surface area of a hypothetical float 



g 



to equal 10 mm the approximate rate of diffusion of CO 

 across the float walls equals 0. 01 mm 3 /mm /hr (table 3, 

 main text) which then equals a total of 0. 10 mm per hour 

 for the entire float. 



From table 1( in the main text), an "average" oxygen 

 uptake (exclusive of Experiments 1 through 3, and 6) is equal 

 to 0. 74 mm 3 /mg/hr and an "average" float weight (Experi- 

 ments 8, 11, and 12, only) equals 4.5 mg. The hypothetical 

 float then consumes 0. 333 mm 3 O per hour. 



2 



If all diffused CO is quickly lost to the gas phase of 

 the reaction vessel, thus countering movement of the indi- 

 cator drop, true O s uptake in one hour would equal 0. 433 

 mm 3 = 0.096 mm 3 /mg/hr. 



Thus it cannot be stated with certainty that Experi- 

 ments 8, 11, and 12 would not have shown somewhat higher 

 rates of oxygen consumption if diffused CO had been absorbed 

 by suitable reagents as was CO , nor can it be shown con- 

 clusively that no CO was produced during these experiments. 

 From the above example, however, it can be seen that even 

 allowing for the maximum measured rate of diffusion for 

 CO, the resulting rate of oxygen consumption falls very 

 close to the range of values obtained by the syringe method. 

 Since even the comparatively slow rate of carbon monoxide 

 production demonstrated for the float in Experiment 6 re- 

 sulted in a respiratory rate accelerated to double the next 

 highest rate, it seems unlikely that any significant gas 

 secretion occurred during Experiments 8, 11, and 12. 



37 



