| Graduate Courses
Current Chemical Oceanography courses from which individual graduate programs are constructed are listed below. Generally the graded course requirements are completed within the first six quarters; further elective courses are taken on the advice of the student's supervisory committee. Marine Chemistry (Ocean 520) Processes controlling the chemical composition of seawater. Chemical distributions in the ocean, marine physical chemistry, chemical equilibrium and concepts of mass balance. Mechanisms and models used to explain distributions of stable and radioactive isotopes, gases, trace metals, and biochemicals in the world's oceans. Aquatic Chemistry (OCEAN 521) Application of physical chemistry and thermodynamics to processes that control chemical composition of natural waters. Equilibrium approach. Acid/base chemistry, the carbonate system, dissolution and precipitation of solids, metal ions in solution, oxidation-reduction chemistry, silicate mineral reactions. Marine Organic Geochemistry (OCEAN 522) Sources, reactions, and fates of organic molecules in the marine environment along with the stable isotope geochemistry of marine organic substances. Geochemical Cycles (OCEAN 523) Descriptive, quantitative aspects of earth as a biogeochemical system. Study of equilibria, transport processes, chemical kinetics, biological processes; their application to carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorus, other elemental cycles. Stability of bio-geochemical systems; nature of human perturbations of their dynamics. Environmental Chemical Modeling (OCEAN 529) Environmental scientists build mathematical models to understand the fate and distributions of environmental pollutants. This course will cover the fundamental principals required to develop such models. These include chemical equilibrium and kinetics and transport by advection and diffusion. Such models are applied to problems as diverse as acid deposition, groundwater contamination, eutrophication in lakes, toxic organic compounds, acid mine drainage and toxic metals. This class will emphasize a number of such environmental chemical problems that occur on local and regional scales. This is a new interdisciplinary course that is part of the Environmental Chemistry (EC) Certificate Curriculum. The approach is problem oriented and will emphasize the use and application of the hydrochemical transport model called PHREEQC. Aquatic Kinetics (OCEAN 580)
Reaction rates and mass transport in water. Theories of chemical kinetics; experimental results from: CO2 hydrolysis, Fe, Mn and H2S oxidation; stable isotope fractionation, mineral dissolution; homogeneous, heterogeneous, microbial catalysis; reaction and transport at air-water, sediment-water and O2/H2S interfaces. Geochemical Modeling (OCEAN 581) Background to modeling concepts frequently encountered in chemical oceanography: box models, advection-diffusion problems, sediment diagenesis equations and boundary layer (air-water and sediment-water interface) models. Problems which require application of the models to chemical distributions in the ocean. River Basin Biogeochemistry (OCEAN 582) The function of rivers and river basins in transporting materials to the oceans and their importance in biogeochemical cycles. Origin of water and water routing within drainage basins, sources and modification of dissolved and particulate materials in transport, ecological theory, and estuarine mixing zone transformations. Isotope Biogeochemistry (OCEAN 583) The use of stable isotopes as a means of studying biogeochemical cycles in the ocean, specifically carbon, nitrogen and sulfur cycles. Isotopic effects during photosynthesis, respiration, organic matter degradation, CaCO3 dissolution, methanogenesis, nitrification/denitrification and sulfate reduction. Radiochemical Tracers and Ocean Mixing (OCEAN 584) Distribution of natural and bomb-produced radioactive tracers in the ocean. Application of models used to derive information concerning time scales of (1) gas transfer at the water atmosphere interface; (2) whole ocean, thermocline, and deep-ocean water circulation; and (3) particulate settling in the marine environment. Paleoceanography (OCEAN 585) History of environmental changes on earth over the past 100my as reconstructed from records in deep-sea sediments, ice sheets, and other ocean/terrestrial substrates. Examination of isotopic, geochemical, micropaleontological, and dating techniques. Role of the ocean in climate change. Current Research in Climate Change (OCEAN 586) A seminar course in the Program on Climate Change. Co-listed as OCN/ATM/ESS 586. Weekly seminars and/or discussions on particular aspects of climate change. Different topic each year. The Global Carbon Cycle and Greenhouse Gases (OCEAN 588) Factors controlling the global cycle of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (CH4, N2O, O3 and CFCs). Physical, chemical and biological processes controlling ocean-atmosphere and terrestrial-atmosphere exchange of carbon. Past changes in greenhouse gases revealed in ice cores and possible causes for these changes. The fate of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Predicted future changes caused by man's intervention into the carbon cycle and strategies for sequestration of anthropogenic CO2. The course will emphasize simple problems of the carbon cycle and an introduction to research articles on each of the topics. This is a course in the Program on Climate Change and is co-listed as OCN/ATM/ESS 588. Paleoclimatology: Data, Modeling and Theory (OCEAN 589) Past climate change and its cause, arranged by variable type (T,P, etc.) rather than by discipline. Evidence for past changes in land and sea surface temperature; basis for major complilations of such data. Past changes in precipitation and atmospheric dynamics, and ocean circulation at both long and short (interannual) timescales. Changes in boundary conditions; theory and evidence for Milankovich forcing, short term solar forcing, ice sheet volume/configuration. Model validation with paleoclimate data. Time series analysis; noise and persistence vs. periodicity. Climate modeling: model types, model resolution, strengths and limitations. Millennial-scale and rapid climate change: theoretical basis for stable/unstable modes in the ocean/atmosphere. Statistical reconstruction of interannual variability prior to the instrumental record. This is a course in the Program on Climate Change and is co-listed as OCN/ATM/ESS 589. i Last Updated: 1 Dec 2003 |
 |