OCEAN 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Radiometry, Phytoplankton, Polar Orbit
Document Summary
All diagrams taken from "ocn210_topic1_lect1. ppt" and "ocn210_topic1_lect2. ppt" on the course canvas website. Surface nutrients: nitrogen is very scare at the surface of the ocean in most of the world, abundant around antarctica. Air-sea pco2 difference: comparing the pressure of co2 in the ocean surface to that in the atmosphere. If the pressure in the ocean is greater, co2 is leaving. Radiocarbon (14c: ratio of carbon atoms with a mass of 14 (radioactive isotopes) to those that are normal, dark blue in the pacific has been around for much longer than the red and orange in the. 14c is unstable and decays; so it can be used to age the deep water. Oxygen in the deep ocean: similar graph to radiocarbon, atlantic and pacific have opposite gradients. Sediment core measurements: allows you to see information about past environments, shows glacial-interglacial cycles fluxuations in mud from all around the planet, time between periods has lessened.
