Chemical characterization of dissolved organic compounds from coastal sea surface microlayers (Baltic Sea, Germany)

However, a detailed description about these processes remains incomplete. In order to obtain a better chemical characterization of the SML, in a case study three pairs of SML and corresponding bulk water samples were taken in the southern Baltic Sea.

The samples were analyzed for dissolved organic carbon and dissolved total nitrogen, as well as for several organic nitrogen containing compounds and carbohydrates, namely aliphatic amines, dissolved free amino acids, dissolved free monosaccharides, sugar alcohols, and monosaccharide anhydrates. Therefore, reasonable analytical procedures with respect to desalting and enrichment were established. All aliphatic amines and the majority of the investigated amino acids (11 out of 18) were found in the samples with average concentrations between 53 ng/l and 1574 ng/l.