Chemical Oceanography And The Marine Carbon Cycle

The principles of chemical oceanography provide insight into the processes regulating the marine carbon cycle. The text offers a background in chemical oceanography and a description of how chemical elements in seawater and ocean sediments are used as tracers of physical, biological, chemical and geological processes in the ocean. The first seven chapters present basic topics of thermodynamics, isotope systematics and carbonate chemistry, and explain the influence of life on ocean chemistry and how it has evolved in the recent (glacial-interglacial) past. This is followed by topics essential to understanding the carbon cycle, including organic geochemistry, air-sea gas exchange, diffusion and reaction kinetics, the marine and atmosphere carbon cycle and diagenesis in marine sediments. Figures are available to download from www.cambridge.org/9780521833134. Ideal as a textbook for upper-level undergraduates and graduates in oceanography, environmental chemistry, geochemistry and earth science and a valuable reference for researchers in oceanography.

Marine geochemistry uses chemical elements and their isotopes to study how the ocean works in terms of ocean circulation, chemical composition, biological activity and atmospheric CO2 regulation. This rapidly growing field is at a crossroad for many disciplines (physical, chemical and biological oceanography, geology, climatology, ecology, etc.). It provides important quantitative answers to questions such as: What is the deep ocean mixing rate? How much atmospheric CO2 is pumped by the ocean? How fast are pollutants removed from the ocean? How do ecosystems react to anthropogenic pressure? This text gives a simple introduction to the concepts, the methods and the applications of marine geochemistry with a particular emphasis on isotopic tracers. Overall introducing a very large number of topics (physical oceanography, ocean chemistry, isotopes, gas exchange, modelling, biogeochemical cycles), with a balance of didactic and indepth information, it provides an outline and a complete course in marine geochemistry. Throughout, the book uses a hands-on approach with worked out exercises and problems (with answers provided at the end of the book), to help the students work through the concepts presented. A broad scale approach is take including ocean physics, marine biology, ocean-climate relations, remote sensing, pollutions and ecology, so that the reader acquires a global perspective of the ocean. It also includes new topics arising from ongoing research programs. This textbook is essential reading for students, scholars, researchers and other professionals.

This book both describes the chemical parameters that must be measured in the ocean in order to improve our understanding of the ocean's role in the global carbon cycle and recommends technologies of analytical chemistry that could be applied to these parameters. Additionally, the volume recommends how the federal government, ocean scientists, and analytical chemists could work together more closely to speed development of new instruments and implementation of new techniques.

Ocean Biogeochemical Dynamics provides a broad theoretical framework upon which graduate students and upper-level undergraduates can formulate an understanding of the processes that control the mean concentration and distribution of biologically utilized elements and compounds in the ocean. Though it is written as a textbook, it will also be of interest to more advanced scientists as a wide-ranging synthesis of our present understanding of ocean biogeochemical processes. The first two chapters of the book provide an introductory overview of biogeochemical and physical oceanography. The next four chapters concentrate on processes at the air-sea interface, the production of organic matter in the upper ocean, the remineralization of organic matter in the water column, and the processing of organic matter in the sediments. The focus of these chapters is on analyzing the cycles of organic carbon, oxygen, and nutrients. The next three chapters round out the authors' coverage of ocean biogeochemical cycles with discussions of silica, dissolved inorganic carbon and alkalinity, and CaCO3. The final chapter discusses applications of ocean biogeochemistry to our understanding of the role of the ocean carbon cycle in interannual to decadal variability, paleoclimatology, and the anthropogenic carbon budget. The problem sets included at the end of each chapter encourage students to ask critical questions in this exciting new field. While much of the approach is mathematical, the math is at a level that should be accessible to students with a year or two of college level mathematics and/or physics.

This textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students presents a multidisciplinary approach to understanding ocean circulation and how it drives and controls marine biogeochemistry and biological productivity at a global scale. Background chapters on ocean physics, chemistry and biology provide students with the tools to examine the range of large-scale physical and dynamic phenomena that control the ocean carbon cycle and its interaction with the atmosphere. Throughout the text observational data is integrated with basic physical theory to address cutting-edge research questions in ocean biogeochemistry. Simple theoretical models, data plots and schematic illustrations summarise key results and connect the physical theory to real observations. Advanced mathematics is provided in boxes and appendices where it can be drawn on to assist with the worked examples and homework exercises available online. Further reading lists for each chapter and a comprehensive glossary provide students and instructors with a complete learning package.

Over the past ten years, a number of new large-scale oceanographic programs have been initiated. These include the Climate Variability Program (CLIVAR) and the recent initiation of the Geochemical Trace Metal Program (GEOTRACES). These studies and future projects will produce a wealth of information on the biogeochemistry of the world's oceans. Aut

Oceans account for 50% of the anthropogenic CO2 released into the atmosphere. During the past 15 years an international programme, the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), has been studying the ocean carbon cycle to quantify and model the biological and physical processes whereby CO2 is pumped from the ocean's surface to the depths of the ocean, where it can remain for hundreds of years. This project is one of the largest multi-disciplinary studies of the oceans ever carried out and this book synthesises the results. It covers all aspects of the topic ranging from air-sea exchange with CO2, the role of physical mixing, the uptake of CO2 by marine algae, the fluxes of carbon and nitrogen through the marine food chain to the subsequent export of carbon to the depths of the ocean. Special emphasis is laid on predicting future climatic change.