MARINE BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES

This Volume belongs to a series on Oceanography. It is designed so that it can be read on its own, or studied as part of the Open University third-level course, S330 Oceanography. After a brief introduction to sea-floor sediments, we show how the activities of marine organisms cycle nutrients and other dissolved constituents within the oceans, and influence the rates at which both solid and dissolved material is removed to sediments. Chapter 3 reviews the carbonate system and we also show how the sediments that come from continental areas may be transported to the deep sea. We then go on to explore what sea-floor sediments have taught us about the history of the oceans, and we conclude by describing the biological and chemical processes that continue long after sediments have been deposited on the deep sea-floor.