Ocean Biogeochemical Dynamics

Textbook by Jorge L. Sarmiento and N. Gruber, Princeton University Press

This text is made available to the students attending Prof. Nicolas Gruber's classes at UCLA.

Copyright is with the authors.


book for download (last update October 3, 2004)
Ocean Biogeochemical Dynamics:
Sarmiento and Gruber (in press)
Chapter 1: Introduction
Why are elements not distributed evenly in the ocean? Why are the concentrations of some elements many thousand times lower in seawater in comparison to their concentration in the inflowing rivers? Dynamic versus equilibrium control of ocean chemical concentrations.

Chapter 2: Ocean Transport
Overview of large-scale ocean circulation. Wind-driven circulation, Sverdrup balance, Stommel gyre, thermohaline circulation, mixing, geostrophy, circulation tracers, interannual variability.

Chapter 3: Air-sea interface
Solubility and physics of air-sea gas exchange

Chapter 4: Organic matter production
Primary production in the ocean, primary producers, functional groups, light and nutrient limitation, grazing, seasonal cycle, spring bloom, nitrogen fixation.

Chapter 5: Organic matter export and remineralization
Water column remineralization, respiration, bacterial breakdown, denitrification, dissolved organic carbon.

Chapter 6: Diagenesis
Organic matter remineralization in the sediments.

Chapter 7: Silicate cycling
Production of silicious materials by diatoms, export, dissolution in the water column and in the sediments.

Chapter 8: Carbon cycling
Apply the concepts presented in the earlier chapters to carbon. Carbon chemistry, carbon cycling, seasonal variability, export and remineralization.

Chapter 9: CaCO3 cycling
Calcium carbonate cycling, production, dissolution, sediments, CaCO3 compensation.

Chapter 10: Oceanic carbon cycle, atmospheric CO2 and climate
Topical problems on ocean and global carbon cycle. Anthropogenic perturbation, interannual variability, glacial-interglacial CO2 changes

Related Reading Material
Broecker, W. S. and T. H. Peng, 1999. Greenhouse Puzzles, 2nd edition, Eldigio Press, Palisades, NY, 251pp.

Broecker, W. S. and T. H. Peng., 1982. Tracers in the Sea, Eldigio Press, Palisades, NY.

Chester, R. 1999. Marine Geochemistry, 2nd edition, Blackwell Science, 528pp.

Libes, S.M. 1992. An Introduction to Marine Biogeochemistry. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., N.Y. 734 pp.

MacKenzie, F. T. 1999. Global biogeochemical cycles and the physical climate system, Global Change Instruction Program, UCAR, Boulder, CO, 69pp.
last modification: 10/3/04 (ng)