Emiliania huxleyi cells were grown in artificial seawater of different Li and Ca concentrations and coccolith Li/Ca ratios determined. Coccolith Li/Ca ratios were positively correlated to seawater Li/Ca ratios only if the seawater Li concentration was changed, not if the seawater Ca concentration was changed. This Li partitioning pattern of E. huxleyi was previously also observed in the benthic foraminifer Amphistegina lessonii and inorganically precipitated calcite. We argue that Li partitioning in both E. huxleyi and A. lessonii is dominated by a coupled transmembrane transport of Li and Ca from seawater to the site of calcification. We present a refined version of a recently proposed transmembrane transport model for Li and Ca. The model assumes that Li and Ca enter the cell via Ca channels, the Li flux being dependent on the Ca flux. While the original model features a linear function to describe the experimental data, our refined version uses a power function, changing the stoichiometry of Li and Ca. The version presented here accurately predicts the observed dependence of D _Li on seawater Li/Ca ratios. Our data demonstrate that minor element partitioning in calcifying organisms is partly mediated by biological processes even if the partitioning behavior of the calcifying organism is indistinguishable from that of inorganically precipitated calcium carbonate.

中文翻译：

---

Li划分为Emiliania huxleyi的球石：评估“生命效应”在解释生物碳酸盐中元素划分中的一般作用

Emiliania huxleyi细胞在不同Li和Ca浓度的人工海水中生长，并测定了椰菜Li / Ca比。仅当海水Li浓度改变时，球藻Li / Ca比值与海水Li / Ca比值呈正相关，如果海水Ca浓度改变，则Coccolith Li / Ca比值正相关。以前在底栖有孔虫Amphistegina lessonii和无机沉淀方解石中也观察到了E. huxleyi的Li分配模式。我们认为E. huxleyi和A. lessonii中的Li分区Li和Ca从海水到钙化位点的跨膜运输占主导地位。我们提出了最近提出的Li和Ca跨膜转运模型的改进版本。该模型假设Li和Ca通过Ca通道进入电池，Li的通量取决于Ca的通量。原始模型具有描述实验数据的线性函数，而我们的改进版使用幂函数，从而改变了Li和Ca的化学计量。此处提供的版本可以准确预测D _Li的观测依赖性海水中锂/钙的比例。我们的数据表明，钙化生物中的微量元素分配部分是由生物过程介导的，即使钙化生物的分配行为与无机沉淀的碳酸钙没有区别。