The past two or three decades have seen many important advances in our knowledge of the chemistry, physics, geology and biology of the oceans. It has also become apparent that in order to understand the manner in which the oceans work as a 'chemical system', it is necessary to use a framework which takes account of these interdisciplinary advances. Marine geochemistry has been written in response to the need for a single state-of-the-art text that addresses the subject of treating the sea ...

Marine Geochemistry offers a fully comprehensive and integrated treatment of the chemistry of the oceans, their sediments and biota. The first edition of the book received strong critical acclaim and was described as ‘a standard text for years to come.’ This third edition of Marine Geochemistry has been written at a time when the role of the oceans in the Earth System is becoming increasingly apparent.Following the successful format adopted previously, th...

Over the past few years, devastating tsunamis off the coast of the Indian Ocean have killed hundreds of thousands of people. Even more alarmingly, scientists predict that these tsunamis, as well as a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, may eventually threaten Hawaii, California, and Oregon. The cause of this trinity of natural disasters is plate tectonics. Perhaps the greatest advance made in the field of earth science, the plate-tectonics theory argues that the surface of the Ea...

This modern climatology textbook explains those climates formed near the ground in terms of the cycling of energy and mass through systems.

In 1936 a German chemist identified certain organic molecules that he had extracted from ancient rocks and oils as the fossil remains of chlorophyll--presumably from plants that had lived and died millions of years in the past. It was another twenty-five years before this insight was developed and the term "biomarker" coined to describe fossil molecules whose molecular structures could reveal the presence of otherwise elusive organisms and processes. Echoes of Life is the story of...

The second edition of The Biomarker Guide is a fully updated and expanded version of this essential reference. Now in two volumes, it provides a comprehensive account of the role that biomarker technology plays both in petroleum exploration and in understanding Earth history and processes. Biomarkers and Isotopes in the Environment and Human History details the origins of biomarkers and introduces basic chemical principles relevant to their study. It discusses analytical techniques, and ap...

The climate of the Earth is always changing. As the debate over the implications of changes in the Earth's climate has grown, the term climate change has come to refer primarily to changes we've seen over recent years and those which are predicted to be coming, mainly as a result of human behavior. This book serves as a broad, accessible guide to the science behind this often political and heated debate by providing scientific detail and evidence in language that is clear to both the non-s...

In this exciting and innovative textbook, two leading oceanographers bring together the fundamental physics and biology of the coastal ocean in a quantitative but accessible way for undergraduate and graduate students. Shelf sea processes are comprehensively explained from first principles using an integrated approach to oceanography that helps build a clear understanding of how shelf sea physics underpins key biological processes in these environmentally sensitive regions. Using many obse...

This book provides a detailed examination of the concentration, form and cycling of trace metals and metalloids through the aquatic biosphere, and has sections dealing with the atmosphere, the ocean, lakes and rivers. It discusses exchanges at the water interface (air/water and sediment/water) and the major drivers of the cycling, concentration and form of trace metals in aquatic systems. The initial chapters focus on the fundamental principles and modelling approaches needed to understand...

Introduction to Marine Biogeochemistry focuses on the ocean's role in the biogeochemical cycling of selected elements and the impact of humans on the cycling of these elements. Among the topics covered are the chemical composition of seawater from the perspectives of elemental speciation and the impacts of solutes on water's physical behavior; biogeochemical phenomena which control accumulation and preservation of marine sediments; marine chemistry of radioactive and stable isotopes; and s...

Bioluminescence is everywhere on earth—most of all in the ocean, from angler fish in the depths to the flashing of dinoflagellates at the surface. Here, Thérèse Wilson and Woody Hastings explore the natural history, evolution, and biochemistry of the diverse array of organisms that emit light.While some bacteria, mushrooms, and invertebrates, as well as fish, are bioluminescent, other vertebrates and plants are not. The sporadic distribution and paucity of luminous forms calls for ...

The third edition of Gordon Bonan's comprehensive textbook introduces an interdisciplinary framework to understand the interaction between terrestrial ecosystems and climate change. Ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying ecology, environmental science, atmospheric science, and geography, it reviews basic meteorological, hydrological, and ecological concepts to examine the physical, chemical, and biological processes by which terrestrial ecosystems affect and are af...