Standard operating procedure for the analysis of major ions in hydrothermal fluids by ion chromatography

Monica Correggia; Luciano Di Iorio; Alessia Benedicta Bastianoni; Mustafa Yucel; Angelina Cordone; Donato Giovannelli

doi:10.12688/openreseurope.15605.2

Standard operating procedure for the analysis of major ions in hydrothermal fluids by ion chromatography

Open Res Eur. 2024 Jul 29:3:94. doi: 10.12688/openreseurope.15605.2. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Monica Correggia^#¹, Luciano Di Iorio^#¹, Alessia Benedicta Bastianoni^#¹, Mustafa Yucel^#², Angelina Cordone^#¹, Donato Giovannelli^#^{1

3

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6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy.
² Institute of Marine Sciences, Middle East Technical University, Mersin, Turkey.
³ Department of Marine and Coastal Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA.
⁴ Istituto per le Risorse Biologiche e Biotecnologiche Marine, IRBIM, National Research Council, Italy, Ancona, Italy.
⁵ Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, USA.
⁶ Earth-Life Science Institute, ELSI, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ookayama, Japan.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

This standard operating procedure (SOP) describes an ion chromatography (IC) procedure for the major cations and anions in hydrothermal fluids. Hydrothermal fluids are aqueous solutions with a wide range of temperature, salinity, pH and ion species that can be used by microbial metabolism as electron donors and electron acceptors. Due to the high variability of the environmental physical-chemical parameters in these samples, we have developed this protocol taking into account the special features of the matrices analyzed. An Eco IC Metrohm system equipped with a conductivity detector was used. Calibration curves are linear in the 0.1 to 10 mg/L concentration range for cations Ca ²⁺, Na ⁺, K ⁺, Mg ²⁺, NH ₄ ⁺ and anions Cl ^-, Br ^-, NO ₃ ^-, NO ₂ ^-, SO ₄ ^2- , PO ₄ ^3-.

Keywords: Standard Operating Procedure; aqueous geochemistry; hydrothermal fluids; ion chromatography; major ions.

Plain language summary

This manuscript details the standard operating procedure used for the determination of major cations and anions in hydrothermal fluids, which are characterized by a high variability of physico-chemical parameters. Due to the high variability of our samples, we customized the method to compensate for the variability on the physico-chemical parameters. The results are useful to interpret the geochemical processes and for understanding how these processes influence microbial diversity in geothermal systems.

Grants and funding

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No [948972—COEVOLVE—ERC-2020-STG]).