Fish otolith reference material for quality assurance of chemical analyses

A certified reference material (CRM) for major, minor and trace element analysis was prepared from sagittal otolith of red emperor (Lutjanus sebae) at National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan in collaboration with Western Australian Marine Research Laboratories (WAMRL), Australia. Otoliths (1.4 kg) were cleaned, pulverized, sieved to pass a 105-mu m screen and homogenized, and 375 vials, each containing 3 g, were prepared. Certified value was determined for Na, Mg, K, Ca, Sr and Pa through a collaboration involving NIES and five other laboratories. The certified value (mean of the means reported from the collaborating laboratories plus or minus the 95% confidence interval) were 97.0 +/- 4.2 mu mol/g (0.223 +/- 0.010%) for Na, 0.88 +/- 0.06 mu mol/g (21 +/- 1 mu g/g) for Me, 7.21 +/- 0.20 mu mol/g (282 +/- 8 mu g/g) for K, 9.69 +/- 0.11 mmol/g (38.8 +/- 0.5%) for Ca, 26.9 +/- 0.5 mu mol/g (0.236 +/- 0.005%) for Sr and 21.1 +/- 0.6 nmol/g (2.89 +/- 0.09 mu g/g) for Ba. Reference values were given for Cu [12 nmol/g (0.74 mu g/g)], Zn [7.2 nmol/g (0.47 mu g/g)], Cd [0.025 nmol/g (0.0028 mu g/g)] and Pb [0.11 nmol/g (0.023 mu g/g)] based on definitive analyses at NIES. This CRM will be of practical value for the quality assurance of solution-based elemental analysis of fish otoliths and other marine aragonites. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.