Chemical Oceanography and the Marine Carbon Cycle

Steven Emerson · John Hedges

Apr 2008 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

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.

About the author

Steven Emerson is Professor of Oceanography at the University of Washington, specialising in inorganic geochemistry. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and has worked in Europe as well as the US.

The late John Hedges was Professor of Oceanography at the University of Washington, specialising in organic geochemistry. He was the recipient in 2000 of the Geochemical Society's Alfred R. Treibs Award for lifetime achievement.