Lecture 1: Introduction

______________________________________________________________________
Chemical oceanography is the study of everything about the chemistry of the ocean based
on the distribution and dynamics of elements, isotopes, atoms and molecules. This ranges
from fundamental physical, thermodynamic and kinetic chemistry to two-way
interactions of ocean chemistry with biological, geological and physical processes. It
encompasses both inorganic and organic chemistry, and includes studies of atmospheric
and terrestrial processes as well. Chemical oceanography includes processes that occur on
a wide range of spatial scales; from global to regional to local to microscopic dimensions,
and temporal scales; from geological epochs to glacial-interglacial to millennial, decadal,
interannual, seasonal, diurnal and all the way to microsecond time scales. The field by its
own nature is very much an interdisciplinary field.

Global
Weather

10000

Space, km

1000

100
O

Ocean
Composition
Petroleum
Formation

t
en
dim e
e
S ng
n/
ea cha
Oc Ex

e
er
ph
s
o
m ge
At n
n/ cha
a
ce Ex

Ore
Formation

t
r us
n/C ge
a
n
e
Oc xcha
E

cle
rti
Pa ge
/
n n
ea ha
Oc Exc

10

Climate

ry
ist
em
ch
o
ot
Ph

Local

Second

Minute

Day

10

Time, seconds
Year

12

Century

14

Million Years

16

(Log)

Billion Years

The advantages of the chemical perspective include:

1. Huge information potential due to large number of elements (93), isotopes (260),
naturally occurring radioisotopes (78) and compounds (innumerable) present in
the ocean.
2. Chemical measurements in the ocean are highly representative, reproducible and
predictable (statistically meaningful). One drop of water is about 1/20th of a
milliliter or 0.05 g, this is 2.8 x 10-3 moles or 1.7 x 1021 molecules.
3. Quantitative treatments are possible (stoichiometries, balances, predictions of
reaction rates and extents).
4. We can learn about processes from chemical changes. Seawater composition
integrates multiple previous events, this is important because most of the ocean is
inaccessible to direct observation.

How and Why is This Field Relevant?

We are all aware of the CO2 and other greenhouse gases increase in the atmosphere since
the beginning of the industrial revolution. This is seen in the classic data from C.D.
Keeling (1976) showing the seasonal oscillations and the steady annual increase of CO2
at the Mauna Loa Observatory. Most experts conclude that we are already witnessing the
impact of this as global warming, and the signal is expected to become increasingly more
pronounced.

The inventory of dissolved inorganic C in the oceans is 50-60 times greater than that in
the atmosphere, so a small perturbation of the ocean carbon cycle can result in a
substantial change in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. The ocean carbon cycle
influences atmospheric CO2 via changes in the net air-sea CO2 flux that are driven by
differences in the partial pressure of CO2 between the surface ocean and atmosphere. This
exchange process is dominated by two interdependent carbon pumps that deplete the
surface ocean of total CO2 relative to deep water. Because the solubility of CO2 increases
with decreasing temperature, the SOLUBILITY PUMP transfers CO2 to the deep sea
during formation of cold deep water at high latitudes. This is a link of the ocean carbon
cycle to physical processes (circulation). At the same time the BIOLOGICAL PUMP
removes carbon from surface waters by settling of organic and inorganic carbon derived
from biological production to the deep sea. This is a link of the ocean carbon cycle to
biological processes.
Understanding the natural processes that affect the global carbon cycle is an important
requisite for correctly predicting the effects of global warming. For this we need a sound
descriptive and quantitative background in all aspects of chemical oceanography and a
good understanding of the coupling between chemical oceanography, tectonics, climate,

and physical, and biological oceanography. As illustrated in the figure below the oceans
are in continues contact with the atmosphere, lithosphere and biosphere.

Volcanic
Venting

Dust

Rivers

Gas
Exchange

Sedimentation/Water
Interaction

Bioparticle
Formation
Plankton

Continental
Crust

Sed
imen
ts

Crust
Hydrothermal
Subducting
Vents
Subducting
Basalt

Mantle

Sediment

In addition to the major role the ocean plays in the global carbon cycle the worlds ocean
is also a resource for minerals, energy (gas and petroleum), fisheries, and is the ultimate
water source.
Overview of Ocean Chemistry
Chemical Oceanography is the most interdisciplinary of all the sub-disciplines of ocean
sciences. The above figure illustrates some of the interactions between the oceans
(hydrosphere), lithosphere, atmosphere and biosphere.
-

Chemical components of the ocean influence the density of seawater and thus effect
its circulation.

Biological processes in the ocean are controlled by the chemistry (nutrient

availability). At the same time biological processes are an important control on
chemical distributions. The synergy between biology and chemistry has led to a
whole new thriving sub-discipline called biogeochemistry.

Chemical components are tracers of physical, biological, geological and chemical

processes. Understanding what controls chemical distributions helps us understand
ocean dynamics.

Oceanic Crustal coupling control the distribution of many ions in seawater on time
scales of 104 to 106 years. Thus, we can learn from ocean chemistry about
weathering, hydrothermal activity, and other crustal processes.

Chemical components of marine sediments provide clues necessary to unravel the

history of past ocean chemistry and ocean-atmosphere dynamics. Understanding the
past should help us predict the future.

Some Descriptive Oceanography

The topography and structure of the ocean floor are highly variable from place to place
and reflect tectonic processes within the Earth's interior. These features have varied in the
past so that the ocean bottom of today is undoubtedly not like the ocean bottom of 50
million years ago. Even as short as about 5 million years ago Central America did not
exist and there was an open seaway between the Atlantic and Pacific. The major
topographic systems, common to all oceans, are the continental margins, the ocean-basin
floors and the oceanic ridge systems. Tectonic features such as fracture zones, plateaus,
trenches and mid-ocean ridges act to subdivide the main oceans into a larger number of
smaller basins.

The continental margin regions are the transition zones between the continents and ocean
basins. The general features of continental margins may be one of two sequences: shelfslope-rise-basin or shelf-slope-trench-basin.
The continental shelf is the submerged continuation of the adjacent land, modified in part
by marine erosion or sediment deposition. The seaward edge of the continental shelf can
frequently be clearly seen and it is called the shelf break. The shelf break tends to occur
at a depth of about 200 m over most of the ocean. On average, the continental shelf is
about 70 km wide, although it can vary widely (compare the east coast of China with the
west coast of Peru).
The continental slope is characterized as the region where the gradient of the topography
changes from 1:1000 on the shelf to greater than 1:40. Thus continental slopes are the
relatively narrow, steeply inclined submerged edges of the continents.
The ocean trenches are the topographic reflection of the subduction of oceanic plates
beneath the continents. The greatest ocean depths occur in such trenches. The deepest is
the Challenger Deep, which descends to 11,035 meters in the Marianas Trench.
The continental rises are mainly depositional features that are the result of coalescing of
thick wedges of sedimentary deposits carried by turbidity currents down the slope and
along the margin by boundary currents. Deposition is caused by the reduction in current
speed when it flows out onto the gently sloping rise. Gradually the continental rise grades
into the ocean basins and the abyssal plains.
The average depth of the oceans is 3730 m. The area, volume and average depth of the
ocean basins and some marginal seas are given below. The Pacific Ocean is the largest
and contains more than one-half of the Earth's water.
Region
Pacific Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
Indian Ocean
Arctic
South East Asia Seas
Central America Seas
Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea
Hudson Bay
Other Marginal Seas (Baltic, Red etc.)

Area
(106 km2)
165.25
82.44
73.44
14.09
8.14
4.32
2.97
1.23
9.18

Mean Depth
(m)
4282
3926
3963
1205
1212
2216
1429
128

Volume
(106 km3)
707.56
323.61
291.03
16.98
9.87
9.57
4.24
0.16
7.3

Global Water Cycle

Water is present on Earth in three phases - solid, liquid and gas. The ocean contains the
bulk (97%) of the earth's water (1.37 x 109 km3 or about 1.37 x 1024 g) and moderates the
global water cycle. Glaciers are the second largest reservoir with about 2% of the total.
The reservoir of water in rivers, lakes and the atmosphere is a trivial part of the total
(0.003%). A summary of the water reservoirs is given below (after Reeburgh, 1997;
Berner and Berner, 1987).
Environment

Water Volume
(km3)

Percentage of Total
(%)

Surface Water
Freshwater Lakes
Saline Lakes and Inland Seas
Rivers and Streams
Total

125,000
104,000
1,200
230,000

0.01
0.009
0.0001
0.0191

Subsurface Water
Soil Moisture
Ground Water (shallow, <750m)
Ground Water (deep, 750-4000m)
Total

67,000
4,000,000
5,000,000
9,067,000

0.005
0.30
0.38
0.685

Ice Caps and Glaciers

Atmosphere
Biosphere

29,000,000
13,000
600

2.05
0.001
.00004

Oceans

1.37 x 109

97.25

Total

1.408 x 109

Water is continually moving between reservoirs as part of the hydrological cycle. These
fluxes are summarized in the figure and table below. Evaporation exceeds precipitation
over the ocean, while precipitation exceeds evaporation over land. River flow from land
to the ocean accounts for the difference.

Flux

Water Flux (km3 yr-1)

Ocean Evaporation
Ocean Precipitation
Land Evaporation
Land Precipitation
Runoff from Land

423,000
385,600
72,900
110,300
37,400

The ocean has a turnover time of about 37,000 years with respect to river inflow. This is
how long it would take to fill the ocean if it were totally dry. Turnover times are defined
as the mass in the reservoir divided by the input or removal rate. By comparison the
average residence time of water in the atmosphere with respect to evaporation from the
oceans and continents is only about 10 days.
The ocean's role in controlling the water content of the atmosphere has important
implications for past, present and future climates of the Earth. Water vapor itself is the
most important greenhouse gas and, alone, is responsible for about 23C of greenhouse
warming. Without any greenhouse gases the average earth temperature would be 260K.
Instead it averages 283K mostly because of the trapping of infrared radiation by water
vapor. Water's unusually high heat capacity and latent heat of evaporation play an
important role in heat storage and transport.
History
Much of the early history of oceanography was descriptive and chemical oceanography
was considered part of biological oceanography until the 1960's. The stature of chemical
oceanography grew as it was realized that chemical tracers had the power to answer
problems in all disciplines of oceanography. By the 1970's the basic distribution of most
elements in seawater had been fairly well understood. At that time the sub-discipline of
marine chemistry emerged. These chemists focused their efforts on understanding
chemical reactions and mechanisms in the ocean and at its boundaries.

Some especially noteworthy events include:

1772 Lavoisier produced the first respectable analyses of seawater and attempted to
isolate some of its constituent salts.
1836 Gay-Lussac showed that the total salt content of the ocean was remarkably
constant throughout the Atlantic. He suggested that the small differences that
did exist were due to variations in river runoff as well as evaporation and
precipitation
1819 Marcet analyzed seawater from several different locations and determined that
there was a constant proportion between the major elements. We now refer to
this fundamental concept as the Marcet's Principle or the Principle of Constant
Proportions.
1865 Forchhammer presented the first definition of salinity
1884 Dittmar completed the first systematic analyses of the major ions in seawater.
He used samples collected during the HMS Challenger Expedition (18731876)
1930s Rockefeller Foundation provided support to strengthen oceanographic
programs at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution and the University of Washington.
1940s World War II, which led to the building of the ocean research establishment.
Congress created the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in 1946.
1970s International Decade of Ocean Exploration (IDOE) funding of major
oceanographic programs (GEOSECS, MANOP, CLIMAP)
1990s Global Change Research Program (GCRP) funding of major programs
related to global change (JGOFS, WOCE, TOGA, GLOBEC, RIDGE)
See Pilson (1998, Chapter 1) for more details on the history of Chemical Oceanography.
Scope of Chemical Oceanography: Fundamental Questions
Here are a few examples of some of the key questions addressed in chemical
oceanography. From this class you will obtain the tools to address and understand these
problems.
- Why is the ocean salty and what controls its salt content? Does evaporation of river
water make seawater? The answer is no. Evaporation of river water makes an alkaline
lake with pH values ~10 and very low concentrations of calcium and magnesium.

- What are the different forms of chemicals in the oceans and how can we calculate their
concentrations using a systematic chemical approach? Copper is toxic to phytoplankton
like Thalassiosira pseudonana. The growth rate of this organism decreases with
increasing total concentration of Cu, but with much scatter in the data (left figure below).
When the speciation of copper is taken into account and the activity of the free Cu2+ ion is
calculated, the scatter is removed (Sunda and Guillard, 1976). The conclusion is that the
activity of Cu2+ and not the concentration is the main determinant of the toxicity.

- What are the chemical controls on biological

production and food web structure of the
ocean? In some ocean areas iron limits
phytoplankton growth. Martin (1991)
conducted experiments where he added iron to
samples and showed that adding iron
stimulated growth rate and also stimulated
diatom production.

- In what ways do biological

processes control the distributions
of chemicals in the ocean?
Photosynthesis and respiration
control the distribution of many
elements in seawater.

- What controls the distribution of clay minerals and biogenic phases like calcite
(CaCO3), opal (SiO2) and organic carbon in marine sediments? CaCO3 is enriched in
shallow sediments and almost totally absent in deep sediments. A balance between the
production of CaCO3 by organisms in the upper water column and dissolution in deeper
waters, which is a function of temperature and pressure, controls CaCO3 distribution.
- What can chemical tracers (specific elements and compounds as well as stable and
radioactive isotopes) tell us about physical, biological and geological processes and their
rates in the ocean? For example, the distribution of 14C and CFCs in seawater can tell as
when a water mass was last in contact with the atmosphere thus, the age of that water
mass and circulation rates.
- How important is the ocean as a sink for fossil fuel CO2 and other greenhouse gases?
Brewer (1978) calculated the pCO2 in samples from the core of the salinity minimum of
the Antarctic Intermediate Water. The youngest samples from further south have highest
pCO2 reflecting the increase in atmospheric CO2.
- How much has atmospheric CO2
varied in the geological past and
what were the controls? Martin
(1991) shows the distribution of
iron and CO2 versus age (0 to
160,000 years BP) in the Vostok
ice core in Antarctica. Martin
argued that there was increased
atmospheric input of dust rich in
iron during the last glacial. This
stimulated biological production in
the ocean and lowered atmospheric
CO2.

The Future
Where do we stand today and what does the future hold? Chemical Oceanography will
continue to be an exciting, dynamic and vibrant field as the earth's population struggles to
deal with the effects of the increase in fossil fuel CO2 and other anthropogenic trace gases
and global warming. A comprehensive discussion on the future of ocean chemistry
research in the US (FOCUS) was recently conducted (Mayer and Druffel, 1999).

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References:
Berner E.K. and R.A. Berner (1987) The Global Water Cycle. Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 397pp.
Brewer P.G. (1978) Direct observation of the Oceanic CO2 increase. Geophys. Res. Lett.
5, 997-1000.
Butcher S.S., R.J. Chrlson, G.H. Orians and G.V. Wolfe (eds)(1992) Global
Biogeochemical Cycles. Academic Press, San Diego, 379 pp.
Craig H., S. Krishnaswami and B.L.K. Somayajulu (1973) 210 Pb-226 Ra: Radioactive
disequilibria in the deep sea. Earth and Planet Science Letters, 17, 295-305
Forchhammer G. (1865) On the composition of seawater in different parts of the ocean.
Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London. 155, 203-262.
Garrels R.M. and F.T. Mackenzie (1967) Origin of the chemical compositions of some
springs and lakes. In (W. Stumm, ed) Equilibrium Concepts in Natural Water
Systems. Advances in Chemistry Series 67, ACS, Washington, 222- 242.
Johnson K.S., K.H. Coale and H.W. Jannasch (1992) Analytical Chemistry in
Oceanography. Analytical Chemistry, 64, 1065A-1075A
Keeling C.D. et al (1976) Atmospheric carbon dioxide variations at Mauna Loa
Observatory, Hawaii. Tellus, 28, 538-551.
Keeling R.F. and S.R. Shertz (1992) Seasonal and interannual variations in atmospheric
oxygen and implications for the global carbon cycle. Nature, 358, 723-727.
Libes S. (1992) Marine Biogeochemistry. Wiley, New York, 734pp.
Livingston D.A. (1963) Chapter G. Chemical Composition of Rivers and Lakes. In (M.
Fleischer, ed) Data of Geochemistry, Sixth Edition. USGS Prof. Pap. 440-G, 64 pp.
Martin J.H. (1991) Iron, Liebig's Law and the Greenhouse. Oceanography, 4, 52-55.
Mayer L. And E. Druffel (eds)(1999) The Future of Ocean Chemistry in the US., UCAR,
151pp.
Millero F. J. (1996) Chemical Oceanography, 2nd Edition. CRC Press, Boca Raton,
469pp.
Morel F.M.M. and J.G. Hering (1993) Principles and Applications of Aquatic Chemistry.
Wiley, New York, 588pp.
Ocean Studies Board (1999) Global Ocean Science: Toward an Integrated Approach.
National Academy Press, Washington, 165pp.
Pilson M.E.Q. (1998) An Introduction to the Chemistry of the Sea. Prentice Hall, New
Jersey, 431pp.
Reeburgh W.S. (1997) Figures summarizing the Global Cycles of Biogeochemically
Important Elements. Bull. Ecol. Soc. Amer., 78, 260-267.
Schwarzenbach R.P , P.M. Gschwend and D.M. Imboden (1993) Environmental Organic
Chemistry. Wiley, New York, 681pp.
Spencer D.W. and P.G. Brewer (1970) Analytical Methods in Oceanography I. Inorganic
methods. CRC Critical Reviews in Solid State Sciences, 409-478.
Stumm W. and J.J. Morgan (1996) Aquatic Chemistry, 3 rd Edition. Wiley, New York,
1022pp.
Sunda W. and R.R.L. Guillard (1976) The relationship between cupric ion activity and
the toxicity of copper to phytoplankton. J. Mar. Res., 34, 511-529.

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