The procedures of sample preparation for isotopic determination of boron in clay sediments is very cumbersome, by far, there haven't been relevant reports on that. In order to establish an effective method for sample preparation, a series of experiments were carried out. In this paper, boron in clay sediments was extracted with HCl solution and purified by two-step ion exchange method. Extracted HCl solution should be adjusted to alkalescency before passing through the Amberlite IRA 743 resin column due to the fact that Amberlite IRA 743 resin absorbs boron only from alkalescent solution. However, a mass of hydroxides of Al and Fe will be precipitated when the extracted HCl solution becomes alkalescent. Hydroxides of Al and Fe have a strong adsorption capacity for boron, which can cause boron isotope fractionation. To treat precipitated hydroxides of Al and Fe, four procedures, namely direct ion exchange (DRIE), decationizing ion exchange (DCIE), once sedimentation ion exchange (OSIE) and repeated sedimentation ion exchange (RSIE) were used and assessed. The influences of the four procedures on separation and extraction and isotopic composition of boron in experimental solutions and clay sediments were also discussed. According to the results, the DRIE, DCIE and OSIE are improper. The result of sample determination indicates that when extracting boron via RSIE, with the increase of precipitation times, there's an obvious decrease in boron content in the precipitated hydroxides while a sharp increase in recovery of boron and it is favorable for weakening the influence of boron isotope fractionation. But the process of RSIE is time consuming and it may introduce boron. It needs further research to establish a more effective sample preparation method for isotopic deter- mination of boron in clay sediments.
To be used as proxies of seawater surface temperature （SST）, the 61Soc values and Sr/Ca and Mg/Ca ratios of scleractinian coral skeletons must be verified by coral culture experiments in the laboratory. This paper describes a coral culture experiment that was conducted at several seawater temperatures T （21-28℃） using a tandem aquarium system and the new method for depositing coral skeletons grown under controlled conditions. The δ180c values and the St/Ca and Mg/Ca ratios of the cultured coral were measured. We concluded that the δ18Oc values and Sr/Ca and Mg/Ca ratios of the cultured coral are clearly corre- lated with T. The linear regression curve is δ18Oc（‰）=-0.1427×T（℃）-0.1495 （n=18, r=0.955, p〈0.0001）, and the slope of -0.1427‰/°d℃ is at the low end of the range of published values （-0.13-0.29‰/°d℃）. The Sr/Ca ratio decreases with increas- ing T, whereas the Mg/Ca ratio increases with increasing T, indicating a negative correlation between Sr/Ca and Mg/Ca. Their linear regression curves are Sr/Ca（mmol/mol）=-O.O4156×T＋lO.59 （n=15, r=-0.789, p〈0.005） and Mg/Ca （mmol/mol）= 0.04974×T＋2.339 （n=17, r=-0.457, p〈0.05）, respectively, which demonstrate that when Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca are increased by one unit, T increases by 5.19℃and decreases by 15.62℃, respectively. These variations are significantly lower than published values.
