The chemical oceanography faculty includes William Fitzgerald, Rob Mason, Annelie Skoog, Thomas Torgersen, and Pieter Visscher. In addition, Penny Vlahos is a professor in residence with the department.

A common denominator for the chemistry faculty is a cross-disciplinary approach - all professors in the group use biology, geology, and physics to understand chemical processes in the complex natural environment. The research interests in the group include environmental chemistry and cycling of mercury, organic geochemistry, evaluation of the rates of transport and reaction in aqueous systems, geomicrobiology of mineral formation, trace gas production in microbial mats, modeling of organic matter distributions, and the effect of bubble cavitation on marine organic matter.

Chemical oceanography includes both field and laboratory work. The group works in a range of environments, from the cold of the Arctic to the heat of hydrothermal environments and tropical areas. Analytical techniques used include high-performance liquid-chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC), spectrophotometry, fluorometry, micro-electrodes, GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and inductively coupled plasma with infra-red detection (ICP-IR). The group also uses many more pieces of chemical instrumentation belonging to the Suspended Matter Analysis Laboratory for Education and Research, an NSF-funded facility housed in the department. Five new clean rooms, ranging from class 10,000 to class 100, are other recent additions to the infrastructure available to the chemistry group. The clean rooms make it possible to carry out sensitive trace analysis of metals and organic materials.

In addition to regularly scheduled seminar and special topic courses, we offer the following chemical oceanography courses:

MARN 275. Geological Oceanography
Basic concepts in geological oceanography, plate tectonics and the role of ocean floor dynamics in the control of the Earth and ocean system.

MARN 280. Marine Biogeochemistry
Composition, origin and solution chemistry of sea water. Marine biogeochemical cycles of water, salt, carbon, nutrients, gases and trace elements. Effects of ocean circulation, biological cycles and crustal exchanges on the distribution and transfer of substances in the marine environment.

MARN 325. Radiotracer applications in natural systems.
Applications of radiotracers in the environment for environmental engineers, environmental scientists, geologists, hydrologists and oceanographers. Use of radionuclides in the interpretation and quantification of aqueous transport processes. The interaction of geochemistry, mass transport, and flux balances in Earth, ocean and environmental systems.
Instructor consent required.

MARN 351. Aqueous geochemistry.
Application of chemical theory to rock-water interaction and the geochemistry of the Earth?s aqueous systems.

MARN 368. Marine Geology.
Relationships between physical and chemical processes and the occurrences and distribution of rock types and compositions in the oceanic environment.

MARN 371. Chemical Oceanography.
The role of the oceans in the major global biogeochemical cycles of carbon, sulfur, nutrients, gases and trace elements. Studies include reaction rates, chemical speciation, equilibria, solubility, oxidation-reduction, absorption, complexation, and their effects on the composition of seawater and the transfer of substances at the Earth?s surface.

MARN 379. Seminar in Chemical Oceanography.
Readings and discussion of current literature in chemical oceanography. For graduate and advanced students in oceanography or related field.
Instructor consent required. May be repeated for credit.

MARN 382. Coastal pollution and bioremediation.
Overview of processes and compounds leading to pollution in the nearshore marine environment. The impact of pollution on marine foodwebs and its response is emphasized. Alleviation of pollution through metabolism of organisms, including bacteria, sea grasses and salt marshes.

MARN 385. Marine and Atmospheric Processes of Global Change.
Fundamentals of marine and atmospheric processes in global biogeochemistry. Evaluation of atmospheric, biological, and chemical processes that contribute to global change.

MARN 386. Marine bioorganic chemistry.
Overview of the molecular basis of metabolic and bioenergetic pathways and processes with emphasis on life in the marine environment. Synthesis of marine natural products. Laboratory demonstrations of selected molecular and physiological techniques used in oceanography.

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