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Oceanography

Chemical oceanographers at the University of Washington study the mechanisms that control the distribution of elements and compounds in the ocean. The period of the 1960's and 1970's was occupied by exploration, by chemical mapping of the oceans. Now that the first order chemical distributions are known, attention has shifted to detailed studies of specific processes and their rates. Almost invariably such studies are interdisciplinary and involve integration of chemical concepts with the physical, biological, and geological dynamics of marine systems. In a sense we are involved in a massive study of reverse engineering. While the chemical engineer designs an apparatus to achieve a desired chemical result, we seek to discover the important environmental processes that control chemical distributions in the atmosphere, ocean and its sediments. Part of the motivation for these studies is to evaluate and predict present and future anthropogenic impacts on the environment.

The School of Oceanography takes pride in being a leader in this mechanistic-interdisciplinary approach to the chemical distribution of inorganic and organic, stable, and radioactive elements. Our graduate-level educational program involves a balance of formal course work and research. The program is designed to teach students with strong chemistry backgrounds how to apply their knowledge to oceanographic problems. The first year of core courses provides an integrated overview of chemical, physical, biological, and geological oceanic processes. Introductory classes are complemented by more detailed courses and seminars on thermodynamics, kinetics, chemical tracers and ocean mixing, paleoceanography, stable isotope geochemistry, organic geochemisty, and geochemical modeling.

A major benefit of being located on the campus of a large and excellent university is the educational opportunities offered by a variety of other departments and institutes. Specific advantage is taken of specialized courses and analytical facilities available in the departments of Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Geological Sciences, Applied Mathematics, Microbiology, and Atmospheric Sciences. The Quarternary Research Center provides a unique opportunity for studying earth processes since the last ice age. There are, in fact, over 40 scientists on campus from 17 departments with interest in environmental chemistry. The newly-formed program in Global Environmental chemistry is a formal outgrowth of mutual interests in the area of environmental chemistry. Interaction is also strong with NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory located only a few miles from campus.

The primary goal of the graduate program is to train students to conduct basic research in the ocean and environment. Students often begin research the summer prior to the first year of classes and continue until the completion of a Master's degree at the end of two years. This process involves a combination of course work and sufficient research to present a defense and usually write a journal paper. At this time students and their advisers decide whether to continue or alter the present course for Ph.D. research. Opportunities for research exist for an extremely wide variety of topics that involve chemical measurements in the atmosphere, ocean and sediments. Topics parallel the research interests of the faculty which are outlined in separate documents of this overview.

New discoveries in chemical oceanography often follow development and availability of state-of-the-art analytical facilities. Along with a vast array of routine analytical facilities, instrumentation for chemical research in the School of Oceanography includes two stable isotope gas-inlet sector mass spectrometers, an inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometer for metal analysis, and a variety of gas chromatographs for characterization of organic compounds. Other important facilities such as additional ratio mass spectrometers (both gas and solid source systems), ion chromatographs, and a nuclear reactor are available elsewhere on campus or at the NOAA laboratories.

The philosophy of the faculty regarding field research is that it should be conducted in the area of the world where it makes the most important impact and where the mechanisms being studied are most likely to be understood. Studies in the last few years have taken place in the Amazon Basin, Black Sea, the open-ocean north Pacific, the Sea of Japan, off the west coast of Mexico, 3000 meters deep in the north Pacific, and in Puget Sound. Faculty and students have ready access to the ocean on the research vessels operated by the School of Oceanography as well as other vessels in the U.S. academic fleet. Several individual projects make use of the submersible DSRV Alvin. Chemical oceanographers in our School are currently engaged in development of moorings and in situ chemical instrumentation for determination of continuous remote measurements of a variety of chemical compounds.

The unique geographical location of the University of Washington provides convenient access to the full spectrum of marine and freswater environments. Chemical dynamics in the watershed, rivers, and estuary of the Puget Sound basin provide one of the classic sites for estimating and managing chemical impacts of a large urban population on the environment. Permanently and intermittently anoxic frjords on Vancouver Island in Canada provide a natrual environment for the study of REDOX processes. The Juan de Fuca hydrothermal area off the coast of Washington is the location of active study of the chemical effects of hot anoxic water flowing into a cold oxic deep sea.

The chemical oceanography faculty are involved in both individual and collaborative research projects supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other government agencies such as NOAA, NASA and DOE. These programs provide graduate students the opportunity to take an active role in multidisciplinary research at the leading edge of the marine sciences. Examples of areas of focused study include:

• Carbon Dynamics. This research area includes problems that encompass the role of the ocean in absorbing anthropogenic CO₂ to mechanisms controlling organic carbon burial and the long-term maintenance of oxygen in the atmosphere. Improvements in understanding of this research area are crucial to our ability to explain past and foretell future climate change on Earth. Chemical oceanography faculty have active research projects involving different aspects of carbon cycling in the ocean. Stable isotope tracers of carbon are being used to determine the flux of fossil-fuel C0₂ into the upper ocean. Oxygen mass balances and sediment trap studies are used to determine the organic carbon flux to the deep sea, "the biological pump." The sources, transport mechanisms, and marine input of carbon and nutrients are the subject of a major joint University of Washington-Brazilian project on the Amazon River. Production, diagenesis and burial of the major biochemical compounds of organic matter is an underlying theme of much organic geochemical research. Mechanisms that control the diagenesis and burial of organic carbon are being studied using several approaches, including direct characterization of major consituents and examination of the pore water chemistry of carbon, oxygen, and nutrients.
• Solute-Particle Interactions. Immobilization of seawater solutes on to particulate matter and sediments plays a key role in controlling trace element distributions in the ocean and perhaps the organic matter content of marine sediments. Many faculty are involved in investigations of this type. Studies of radioisotope distributions between the dissolved and particulate material help to elucidate the mechanisms controlling particle fluxes of metals and organic carbon in the oceans. Studies of the mechanisms aof authigenic enrichment of metals in sediments by faculty and graduate students in our School will help determine the utility of these metals as tracers of paleoceanographic processes. Research to evaluate the role of organic matter adsorbtion on to particle surfaces in enhancing preservation is actively being pursued in our group.
• Hydrothermal Systems. Within the School is a group of researchers pursuing multidisciplinary studies of the geological, geophysical, chemical, and microbiological processes active in seafloor hydrothermal vents. The focus is the 550 km long Juan de Fuca ridge located about 300 miles off the coast of Washington. This study has employed both surface ships and submersible investigations. Research efforts include Ocean Drilling Program coring in the northeast Pacific and a program to establish a long-term ocean bottom observatory on the ridge.

Research experience complemented by a comprehensive curriculum are the heart of the educational program in oceanography at the University of Washington. Twenty students have earned their Ph.D. with emphasis in chemical oceanography in our School in the last ten years. Of these, nineteen are presently working as professors or researchers in oceanography or geochemisty in universities or government institutions.