Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- I Introduction to chemical oceanography
- 1 Oceanography background: dissolved chemicals, circulation and biology in the sea
- 2 Geochemical mass balance: dissolved chemical inflow and outflow from the ocean
- 3 Thermodynamics background
- 4 Carbonate Chemistry
- 5 Stable and radioactive isotopes
- 6 Life processes in the ocean
- 7 Paleoceanography and paleoclimatology
- II Advanced topics in marine geochemistry
- Index
- Plate section
- References
7 - Paleoceanography and paleoclimatology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- I Introduction to chemical oceanography
- 1 Oceanography background: dissolved chemicals, circulation and biology in the sea
- 2 Geochemical mass balance: dissolved chemical inflow and outflow from the ocean
- 3 Thermodynamics background
- 4 Carbonate Chemistry
- 5 Stable and radioactive isotopes
- 6 Life processes in the ocean
- 7 Paleoceanography and paleoclimatology
- II Advanced topics in marine geochemistry
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
We end Part 1 of this book with a study of past changes in the Earth's atmosphere, oceans and ice volume. Interpretation of past climatic conditions from chemical tracers and isotopes preserved in the geological record requires knowledge and intuition developed from the study of present-day oceanography. For this reason descriptions of how paleoceanographic tracers are used to unravel insights about past ocean circulation and biogeochemistry serve as a review of the geochemical perspectives presented in the first six chapters of this book.
Present human activities create chemical sources to the environment that are, in some cases, comparable to those of the natural (pre-industrial) Earth. Since some of these anthropogenic additions may affect the natural order of the Earth's climate system, it is urgent to understand how the natural system functions mechanistically. For example, the effect of rapidly rising anthropogenic atmospheric CO2 on the climate system of the Earth is a first-order question (see Chapter 11). Even though global models that incorporate physical and biological interactions among the atmosphere, ocean, terrestrial and ice “spheres” now allow scientists to recreate the Earth's system, reasons for even the most first-order observations of climate change during the past million years are still poorly understood. The waxing and waning of glacial ice with roughly a 100 ky cycle is likely triggered by variations in the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth's surface because of changes in the Earth's orbital motions around the sun.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Chemical Oceanography and the Marine Carbon Cycle , pp. 219 - 258Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
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