What Does a Chemical Oceanographer Do?

Chemical oceanography, also called ocean chemistry, is a science that uses the principles and techniques of chemistry to study the properties of substances in the ocean and their chemical effects. The scope of chemical oceanography research involves a large and complex field-the world's oceans.

The science that studies the chemical composition, material distribution, chemical properties, and chemical processes of each part of the ocean is the main part of marine chemistry. On the one hand, it studies the composition, content distribution, transport flux, chemical form, and various chemical processes of matter in the ocean through marine surveys, experimental analysis, and theoretical methods; on the other hand, it studies these chemical processes and marine life, marine geology, and oceans. The relationship between various motion processes in physics and other fields.

The history of chemical oceanography is also the history of marine chemistry. As early as around 1670, research in this area has begun. By 1942, HU Sverdrup and others used the name "chemical oceanography"; in 1957, FA Richards summarized the research and development of chemical oceanography; JP Riley and G. Si Kirov and R. Chester's "Chemical Oceanography" has been published since 1965, which comprehensively summarizes the research results of chemical oceanography. Since the 1970s, due to the mutual penetration between adjacent disciplines, chemical testing technology has continued to develop, and the use of chemical methods to study marine issues has received greater attention. ^[1]

Chemical oceanography has the following branches: marine geochemistry, marine physical chemistry, seawater analytical chemistry, estuary chemistry, marine organic chemistry. ^[1]

The scope of chemical oceanography research involves a large and complex field-the world's oceans. In extensive practice, the research content of chemical oceanography mainly includes the following four aspects: one is seawater chemistry; the other is marine sediment chemistry; the third is living marine biochemistry; the fourth is

In order to carry out comprehensive research effectively, a person engaged in chemical oceanography must not only be a chemist, but also must have knowledge of related disciplines in the marine field. For example, physical oceanography, geooceanology, biological oceanography, and marine meteorology and engineering are more extensive and richer in practical knowledge.

What marine chemists need to clarify and explain is the large number of complex chemical processes and changes that take place in an extremely huge reactor, the ocean. In fact, it includes all biochemical changes related to countless marine organisms, from marine microorganisms to cetaceans. From macroscopic water circulation and mixing, to local chemical changes in the sea area. From the existence of all the known very small natural elements in the ocean, only one millionth of the natural elements of water molecules, to the formation and decline of a wide variety of organic macromolecules, all are fields involved in chemical oceanography. Therefore, it can be said that the entire marine scientific research has a very close relationship with chemical knowledge and related chemical technologies. This is chemical oceanography in a general sense.

At present, with the deepening and extensive research, chemical oceanography has moved from the study of the content, composition, and distribution of elements and substances in seawater to the stage of studying the existence of elements and its chemical properties, that is, seawater chemistry Model research phase; from the study of homogeneous water bodies to the research of heterogeneous interfaces. This has become the forefront of chemical oceanographic research in many countries around the world. For example, the sea-air interface, seabed-sea water interface, suspension-sea water interface, organism-sea water interface, river water-sea water interface, etc., which are generally concerned by the international marine community, are mainly studied. Research on marine biogeochemical processes directly related to global change and global ocean flux. The research objects of modern chemical oceanography have evolved from the original simple inorganic matter to more complex organic matter, marine high-molecular compounds, suspended ion deposits, and marine organisms and their carcasses. For the research object, it has developed from the simple chemical process of the ocean to the use of some high-tech methods outside the scope of oceanography. For example, technologies such as neutron activation analysis, mass spectrometer, X-ray fluorescence analysis, atomic absorption spectrometry, and radiochemical analysis are used to determine the composition and physicochemical analysis of seawater. In addition, various analytical techniques and methods are also widely used for the determination of seawater chemical composition.

From the perspective of the development of chemical oceanography, the current research focuses on: the relationship between the productivity of marine organisms and the chemical factors of the marine environment; the law of the diffusion and transfer of pollutants in the ocean; And evolution process; using trace chemical substances or nuclides as tracers to study the movement, mixing, diffusion speed, and geological age of sediments of the water mass; the influence of sea surface micro-surface chemical substances on the marine environment; The flux and reaction processes of substances at the river-sea interface, the sea-air interface and the sea-sea bottom interface, and the effects caused by the circulation of these substances in the ocean. ^[1]

The waste discharged into the atmosphere mostly spreads horizontally or vertically along the surface of the earth, and the amount of pollutants increases with time. You know, these pollutants don't stay in the air for a long time, they will eventually sink into the land and the ocean. Waste foreign matter scattered on land is not as easy to spread as in the air. Surface runoff or through groundwater transports these wastes, or their degradation, into the ocean. Therefore, the world's oceans are the ultimate confluence of various pollutants that cannot be retained in the air or on land. Because of this, people exclaimed: "The ocean is dying." To save the ocean, people can only rely on science and technology. In this process, oceanography, or marine chemistry, is often used and most directly.