Latitudinal distribution of iodine in sediments in the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea

Iodine is an important trace element associated closely with human being, and it will influence human’s normal growth if lacking it. Meanwhile, iodine is an important catalyzer, and is important in atmospheric chemistry study. In nature, iodine is rich mainly in marine organism and sediment, and marine sediment has the largest storage of iodine. The analysis results of sediment samples obtained by the First Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition indicate that iodine contents in sediments in the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea are 98.1x10-6 and 73.8x10-6, respec-tively, which are higher than those in sediments of Chinese marginal seas and the southern Pacific Ocean, and show the trend of increase from low latitude to high latitude. This paper proposes a pattern of iodine latitudinal distribution on the basis of the distribution characteristic of iodine and its enrichment mechanism in sediments of the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea.