Assessment of the performance of diffusive gradients in thin-films for metal contaminant measurements in Antarctic marine waters

To do this, three sets of experiments were done: (I) the uptake of metals to DGT samplers was assessed over time when deployed to three metal mixtures of known concentrations (DGT performance page).

This allowed for the determination of metal diffusion coefficients in Antarctic marine conditions and demonstrated when metal competition for binding sites were likely to occur. (II) the DGT were deployed in the presence of the microalga Phaeocystis antarctica at a concentration of 1000-3000 cells/mL to investigate how environmentally realistic concentrations of an Antarctic marine microalgae affect the uptake of metals (DGT uptake with algae page).