Chemical oceanography

Chemical oceanography is the study of ocean chemistry: the behavior of the chemical elements within the Earth’s oceans. Much of chemical oceanography describes the cycling of these elements both within the ocean and with the other spheres of the Earth system. These cycles are usually characterized as quantitative fluxes between constituent reservoirs defined within the ocean system and as residence times within the ocean. Of particular global and climatic significance are the cycles of the biologically active elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus as well as those of some important trace elements such as iron. Another important area of study in chemical oceanography is the behaviour of isotopes and how they can be used as tracers of past and present oceanographic and climatic processes. For example, the incidence of ¹⁸O can be used as an indicator of polar ice sheet extent, and boron isotopes are key indicators of the pH and CO₂ content of oceans in the geologic past.