Towards A Model Of Ocean Biogeochemical Processes

Key biogeochemical events in the ocean take place in less than a second, are studied in experiments lasting a few hours, and determine cycles that last over seasons or even years. Models of the controlling processes thus have to take into account these time scales. This book aims at achieving consensus among these controlling processes at all relevant time scales. It helps understand the global carbon cycle including the production and breakdown of solved organic matter and the production, sinking and breakdown of particles. The emphasis on considering all time scales in submodel formulation is new and of interest to all those working in global ocean models and related fields.

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.

The analysis of polar ice cores has proven to be very instructive about past environmental conditions on the time scale of several climatic cycles, and recent drilling operations have provided information of great value for global change issues. The book presents the most recent data extracted from Greenland ice cores and surface experiments and compares them with former Antarctic results. It contains background articles, original contributions and group reports of interest to scientists, climatologists, atmospheric chemists, and glaciologists involved in global change research.

The world's oceans act as a reservoir, with the capacity to absorb and retain carbon dioxide. The air-sea exchange of carbon is driven by physico-chemical forces, photosynthesis, and respiration, and has an important influence on atmospheric composition. Variability in the ocean carbon cycle could therefore exert significant feedback effects during conditions of climate change. The Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) is the first multidisciplinary program to directly address the interactions among the biology, chemistry, and physics of marine systems, with emphasis on the transport and transformations of carbon within the ocean and across its boundaries. This unique volume, written by an international panel of scientists, provides a synthesis of JGOFS science and its achievements to date. The authoritative chapters will be of great interest to readers seeking a current overview of the role of ocean processes in Earth system science and their wider implications for climate change.

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 185. Indian Ocean Biogeochemical Processes and Ecological Variability provides a synthesis of current knowledge on Indian Ocean biogeochemistry and ecology and an introduction to new concepts and topical paradigm challenges. It also reports on the development of more extensive/frequent observational capacity being deployed in the Indian Ocean. This represents the first collection of syntheses that emphasize a basin-wide perspective, and the contributing authors include some of the most esteemed oceanographers and Indian Ocean experts in the world. The volume is derived from invited plenary talks that were presented at the initial Sustained Indian Ocean Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (SIBER) workshop held at the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Goa, India, in October 2006. The volume discusses The overlying physical processes set by monsoonal forcing and how these control biological production and variability Nutrient cycling and limitation Pelagic carbon cycling and air-sea exchange Benthic biogeochemistry and ecology The impact of climate and human activities on biogeochemistry and ecosystems. The readership for this book will consist of academic and governmental researchers interested in exploring how oceanographic, atmospheric, and hydrological processes combine to establish the environmental setting that supports and drives the pelagic system and which are especially relevant to understanding the complex biogeochemical and ecological interactions in the Indian Ocean.

The newly revised and updated third edition of the bestselling book on microbial ecology in the oceans The third edition of Microbial Ecology of the Oceans features new topics, as well as different approaches to subjects dealt with in previous editions. The book starts out with a general introduction to the changes in the field, as well as looking at the prospects for the coming years. Chapters cover ecology, diversity, and function of microbes, and of microbial genes in the ocean. The biology and ecology of some model organisms, and how we can model the whole of the marine microbes, are dealt with, and some of the trophic roles that have changed in the last years are discussed. Finally, the role of microbes in the oceanic P cycle are presented. Microbial Ecology of the Oceans, Third Edition offers chapters on The Evolution of Microbial Ecology of the Ocean; Marine Microbial Diversity as Seen by High Throughput Sequencing; Ecological Significance of Microbial Trophic Mixing in the Oligotrophic Ocean; Metatranscritomics and Metaproteomics; Advances in Microbial Ecology from Model Marine Bacteria; Marine Microbes and Nonliving Organic Matter; Microbial Ecology and Biogeochemistry of Oxygen-Deficient Water Columns; The Ocean’s Microscale; Ecological Genomics of Marine Viruses; Microbial Physiological Ecology of The Marine Phosphorus Cycle; Phytoplankton Functional Types; and more. A new and updated edition of a key book in aquatic microbial ecology Includes widely used methodological approaches Fully describes the structure of the microbial ecosystem, discussing in particular the sources of carbon for microbial growth Offers theoretical interpretations of subtropical plankton biogeography Microbial Ecology of the Oceans is an ideal text for advanced undergraduates, beginning graduate students, and colleagues from other fields wishing to learn about microbes and the processes they mediate in marine systems.

Biogeochemical ocean general circulation models are important tools for quantifying the marine carbon cycle and its feedback to the climate system. These models simulate the inorganic carbon cycle and also the organic carbon cycle through a series of simplified process parameterizations. This chapter presents an overview of the major concepts and methods in marine biogeochemical modeling including the combination of models with observations. Because of the climatic relevance of the carbon cycle, major emphasis is placed on it, but some other related matter cycles are also touched upon. New developments in ocean biogeochemistry during the last decade are described including the marine anthropogenic carbon uptake and ocean acidification. The chapter tries to acquaint scientists from other disciplines with marine biogeochemical modeling and provides key literature resources for further in-depth studies.

This text presents the current knowledge of environmental colloids and includes reviews of the current understanding of structure, role and behaviour of environmental colloids and particles, whilst focussing directly on aquatic systems and soils. In addition, there is substantial critical assessment of the techniques employed for the sampling, size fractionation and characterisation of colloids and particles. Chemical, physical and biological processes and interactions involving colloids are described, and particular attention is paid to quantitative approaches that take account of particle heterogeneity and polydispersity. Presents critical reviews of the state-of-the-art knowledge of environmental colloids Critical assessment of techniques employed for the sampling, size fractionation and characterisation of colloids and particles are given Theoretical and experimental aspects of the methods as well as the required developments and possible recommendations are discussed Each chapter gives a brief introduction general enough for the non-specialist Written by a internationally recognized group of contributors