Advancing the characterization of organic Cu(II)-binding ligands in Arctic Ocean waters: Integration of IMAC, SPE, HRMS, and fluorescence techniques

The availability and toxicity of dissolved copper (Cu) in the ocean are largely determined by its complexation with organic ligands, but the structure and origin of these ligands are still largely unknown. In this work, standard and marine Cu(II) complexing ligands were isolated using immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) and solid phase extraction (SPE), and characterized using high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence to obtain information on the size distribution, molecular composition, and fluorescing properties of organic Cu(II)-binding molecules in the Arctic Ocean. We first investigated the retention performance of model ligands and found that N-containing ligands were preferentially isolated on the IMAC-SPE column. Application to Arctic Ocean dissolved organic matter (DOM) showed that the organic ligands accounted for up to 3 % of the DOM, consistent with previous studies. Robust correlations of HMRS peak intensities with EEM signals were used to expand chemical characterization of 511 molecular formulas in the IMAC-SPE and SPE extracts. The pairing based on the molecular classification associated with fluorescence signatures showed that 52 % Spearman correlations were linked to humic-like components. The necessity of multiple molecular annotation methods, like HRMS/fluorescence correlation or van Krevelen class attribution, was demonstrated to yield a better molecular identification. The combination of IMAC, SPE, HRMS, and EEM appears to be a promising approach for the characterization of organic Cu(II)-binding ligands in waters. • Copper organic ligands represented about 2–3 % of DOC in the northern Canada Basin • Only 7–25 % of the molecular peaks were found in both SPE and IMAC-SPE extracts • 61 % of the conjugated double-bond molecules correlated with PARAFAC components in the Cu-binding ligand pool