Determination of absolute coccolith abundances in deep-sea sediments by spiking with microbeads and spraying (SMS-method)

A quick new method is described for the quantification of absolute nannofos sil proportions in deep-sea sediments. This method (SMS) is the combination of Spiking a sample with Microbeads and Spraying it on a cover slide. It i s suitable for scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses and for light mi croscope (LM) analyses. Repeated preparation and counting of the same sampl e (30 times) revealed a standard deviation of +/-10.5%. The application of tracer microbeads with different diameters and densities revealed no statis tically significant differences between counts. The SMS-method yielded cocc olith numbers that are statistically not significantly different from value s obtained from the filtration-method. However, coccolith counts obtained b y the random settling method are three times higher than the values obtaine d by the SMS- and the filtration-method. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.