Definition
Copper (Cu) is a transition metal that serves as an essential nutrient to eukaryotes and many prokaryotes due to its many functions in copper enzymes. At elevated concentrations, Cu is toxic and the many industrial uses of copper and its release to the environment has resulted in Cu pollution in soils and surface waters.
Properties: Copper has two stable isotopes 63Cu and 65Cu with a natural abundance of 69.17 and 30.83, respectively, and a standard atomic weight of 63.546 (Coplen et al., 2002; Wieser, 2007). The copper concentration in the bulk continental crust, in the oceanic crust, and in soils is estimated to be 27 ppm (Rudnick and Gao, 2003), 78 ppm (Wedepohl and Hartmann, 1994), and 39 ppm (Han et al., 2002), respectively. The concentrations of copper in unpolluted seawater is typically around 0.3 ppb and in river water, 1.5 ppb (Gaillardet et al., 2003). The world average concentration of copper in rivers has been estimated as 23.6 nM Cu dissolved load and 100 ppm...
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Kraemer, S.M. (2011). Copper. In: Reitner, J., Thiel, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geobiology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9212-1_61
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