Ocean Biogeochemical Dynamics - (PREFACE)

Preface
The aim of this book is to provide a broad theoretical eses to the greatest extent possible, along with many
framework for the study of the biogeochemical pro- examples of old paradigms and hypotheses that are no
cesses that control the chemical composition of the longer accepted. This approach is intended to invite
ocean. The book is based on lectures that the two au- critical questioning by the student, the teacher, and the
thors have given over many years. JLS has taught pri- investigator. We have taken as a guiding principle
marily graduate students and postdocs at Princeton the observation of Thomas Henry Huxley that truth is
University, at the Friday Harbor Laboratory of the Uni- more likely to emerge from error than from vagueness.
versity of Washington, at the University of Bern, at the An additional point we would make about the phi-
University of Gothenburg, and at the University of losophy underlying this book is that looking at the
Paris VI. NG has taught both upper-level undergradu- ocean from the point of view of its chemical composi-
ates and graduates at the University of California, Los tion invites large-scale synthesis. If biology is the glo-
Angeles. Most of these students had a good training in rification of the particular, as one of our biological
physics and mathematics. Because of this we have not colleagues has described it, biogeochemistry could per-
been reticent to use mathematics where it makes con- haps be characterized as the exaltation of the general.
cepts easier to explain. It would be difficult to do theory However, we believe that a real understanding of oce-
without it. On the other hand, all of the mathematics is anic processes requires us to work at the boundaries
at a level that should be understandable by any student between the particular and the general. We ocean bio-
with a year or two of college-level mathematics and/or geochemists must progress beyond simple box model
physics. Another characteristic of the students we have approaches and first-order kinetics if we are to truly
taught is that many if not most of them have had only a understand the processes that control the ocean’s chem-
modest amount of training in chemistry, biology, and ical composition.
physical oceanography. The material we cover thus tries
The outline of the book is:
not to assume an advanced background in these areas.
Chapter 1: Introduction
The philosophy we have tried to follow in writing this
Chapter 2: Tracer Conservation and Ocean Transport
book begins with the basic premise that two of the most
Chapter 3: Air-Sea Interface
important lessons for students to learn in trying to un-
Chapter 4: Organic Matter Production
derstand how the ocean or any other natural system
Chapter 5: Organic Matter Export and Remineralization
functions are (1) to put forward problems in a manner
Copyright © 2006. Princeton University Press. All rights reserved.
Chapter 6: Remineralization and Burial in the Sediments

that provides guidance on how to seek solutions, and (2)
Chapter 7: Silicate Cycle
to learn how to solve problems by example. The pre-
Chapter 8: Carbon Cycle
sentation of the material follows to the greatest extent
Chapter 9: Calcium Carbonate Cycle
possible a pattern of posing problems and seeking so-
Chapter 10: Oceanic Carbon Cycle, Atmospheric CO2,
lutions to them. An essential step in asking good
and Climate
questions is to have a paradigm or hypothesis about the
processes that are under scrutiny, while at the same The logic of the organization is as follows: Chapter 1 sets
time recognizing that such hypotheses are very likely to the scene with an overview of chemical distributions and
change over time. The solution of problems by obser- box models of what controls those distributions. Chapter
vational and theoretical studies will either be consistent 2 introduces the basic conservation equation and pro-
with the hypotheses, or have the more interesting out- vides a review of ocean circulation. Chapters 3 through 6
come of requiring a modification of the hypotheses. We survey oceanic biogeochemical processes progressing
have endeavored to provide such paradigms or hypoth- down the water column from the air-sea interface to the
xi
Sarmiento, Jorge L., and Nicolas Gruber. Ocean Biogeochemical Dynamics, Princeton University Press, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/soton-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1230258.
Created from soton-ebooks on 2020-10-14 07:45:43.
Preface
sediments, discussing the cycles of organic carbon, oxy- to do with dissolved organic matter. An enjoyable visit
gen, nitrate, and phosphate along the way. Chapters 7, 8, to Rick Jahnke was crucial in getting started on chapter
and 9 apply the tools learned in earlier chapters to a 6, and a review of this chapter by Jack Middelburg was
system analysis of the cycles of silicon, carbon, and extremely helpful. Chapter 7 would not have been
CaCO3. The final chapter examines important issues possible without a long and fruitful interaction with
having to do with the control of atmospheric CO2 and Mark Brzezinski, including a wonderful visit to Santa
climate over time, including the anthropogenic transient. Barbara, as well as excellent reviews of two versions of
This book has been a long time in gestation. The idea the chapter by Olivier Ragueneau. Several chapters
for the book first took root when JLS co-taught a sum- profited from a very helpful review by Rick Jahnke.
mer course with Peter Rhines at Friday Harbor Labo- Robbie Toggweiler and Danny Sigman provided de-
ratories to a group of outstanding students from around tailed comments on an earlier version of chapter 10.
the world. First drafts of chapters 1 through 5 were Students and various colleagues at the University
written while JLS gave a class to graduate students from of Bern caught a number of errors in a preliminary
a wide range of disciplines at the Physics Institute of version of this manuscript passed out as lecture notes,
the University of Bern in 1995. We are grateful to and we have received comments from numerous others
Thomas Stocker and Uli Siegenthaler for arranging and who have used preliminary versions of the text over
sponsoring this visit to Bern, which is where the co- time, including students at Princeton University, UCLA,
authors first met and began their long and fruitful col- and Pennsylvania State University.
laboration. The only regret of this otherwise delightful Both authors thank the wonderful group of students
sabbatical is that Uli Siegenthaler passed away two and postdocs they have had over the years and the
weeks before the visit began. He was a good friend as colleagues they have worked with that have stimulated
well as an admired colleague of remarkable sagacity. The their thinking and made their lives as scientists such a
remaining five chapters were written by the coauthors pleasure. Dozens of these students and colleagues re-
in the intervening years, most of them in the last two sponded willingly and gladly to our appeals for help with
years. During the last year, the first five chapters were figures, ideas, and just to serve as sounding boards.
thoroughly updated and expanded, a challenging task They are too many to list individually, but the numer-
in view of the great advances that have taken place ous personal communications and references to their
during the last decade due in large part to the Joint publications in our book will be some measure of ac-
Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). knowledgment, even if small and inadequate.
A large number of individuals contributed to this Finally, we acknowledge Wally Broecker and Tsung-
project over the years. We mention just a few whose Hung Peng’s extraordinarily stimulating textbook Trac-
efforts had a major impact on the book. Geoff Evans ers in the Sea, which was the first book that JLS used in
was extremely helpful in recasting the opening chapter, his teaching and which set a standard of originality and
and had excellent suggestions for chapter 4. Tony Mi- vision that has been a major influence on our field for
chaels made extensive comments on chapters 1 and 4, over two decades. In both our cases, but especially
wrote most of the discussion on classification of or- JLS’s, whose most exciting years in this field were spent
ganisms and brief descriptions of major organisms in as a graduate student with Wally Broecker, this debt is
chapter 4, and was extremely helpful in preliminary as much to him as a person as to the book that he and
discussions of the content of chapter 5. JLS thanks him Tsung-Hung Peng wrote.
and Tony Knap for arranging a very pleasant visit to We, of course, bear full responsibility for any errors
Bermuda, where most of this interaction took place. that remain.
Perspicacious comments on various sections of chapter We dedicate this book to our families and friends,
2 by Mitsuhiro Kawase, Brian Arbic, Anand Gnanade- who supported us through the many ups and downs
sikan, and Robbie Toggweiler helped correct important that are invariably associated with the writing of such a
errors and improve the presentation. Rik Wanninkhof textbook over many years and who had to cover for us
was very helpful in reviewing chapter 3 and provid- and make many sacrifices to enable us to bring this
ing data and other information for that chapter. Rob project to completion. We would not have succeeded
Armstrong provided invaluable comments on chapter 4 without their love and friendship as well as their en-
that helped to make it more coherent, and several long couragement and understanding.
and delightful conversations with Dick Barber and
generous help from John Dunne and many other col-
Jorge L. Sarmiento
leagues were central to bringing it up-to-date. A final
Princeton, New Jersey
review by Robbie Toggweiler and Anand Gnanadesikan
of the updated chapter was crucial. Craig Carlson re- Nicolas Gruber
viewed portions of an early version of chapter 5 having Los Angeles, California
xii
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Preface

Chapter 6: Remineralization and Burial in the Sediments

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