Carbon and nutrient fluxes in continental margins. A global synthesis
Publication year
Resource type
UNCCD Library
External document
Material Type
Book
ISBN
978-3-540-92734-1
In general, interfaces between the Earth’s larger material reservoirs (i.e., the land, atmosphere, ocean, and sediments) are important in the control of the biogeochemical dynamics and cycling of the major bio-essential elements, including carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), sulfur (S), and silicon (Si), found in organic matter and the inorganic skeletons, shells, and tests of benthic and marine organisms.
These interfaces act as relatively rapid modifiers of storage, transport, and perturbation processes at geologically short time-scales. The continental margin constitutes an important interface between the land and the open ocean and includes the region between the land and the open ocean that is dominated by processes resulting from land–ocean margin and ocean margin–open ocean boundary interactions.
This region includes the environments of the proximal estuaries, bays, lagoons, and banks, and the distal continental and island shelves, oceanic slopes, and adjacent marginal seas.
The book is divided into three parts plus references and appendices and consists of 16 chapters:
In Part I. Perspectives and Regional Syntheses, a synthesis paper entitled Biogeochemistry of continental margins in the global context by Kon-Kee Liu, Larry Atkinson, Renato Quinones, and Liana Talaue-McManus sets the stage for the rest of the book. Under Regional Syntheses, the book deals with the various continental margin regions of eastern boundary currents, western boundary currents, Indian Ocean, subpolar, polar, marginal sea, and tropical margins. This main body of the book consists of 39 contributions written by experts who, generally, have personal experience with the physical and biogeochemical features of the regional continental margins under consideration. This section will constitute an important reference for those readers interested in the physical and biogeochemical behavior of regional continental margin ecosystems.
Part II. Arising Issues and New Approaches contains four chapters dealing with the subjects of human impacts on the continental margin, silica and implications of its cycling for the global carbon cycle, submarine groundwater discharge and associated nutrient fluxes, and coupled circulation-biogeochemical models for the continental margin used to estimate carbon flux.
The final four chapters constituting Part III. Cross Boundary Fluxes and Global Synthesis provide a global synthesis of what is known about cross boundary fluxes of carbon and nitrogen in marginal seas, carbon–nitrogen–phosphorus coupling in the coastal zone, sediment and carbon accumulation on the margins, and global synthesis of continental margin regions as used in the regional analysis of Part I.
These interfaces act as relatively rapid modifiers of storage, transport, and perturbation processes at geologically short time-scales. The continental margin constitutes an important interface between the land and the open ocean and includes the region between the land and the open ocean that is dominated by processes resulting from land–ocean margin and ocean margin–open ocean boundary interactions.
This region includes the environments of the proximal estuaries, bays, lagoons, and banks, and the distal continental and island shelves, oceanic slopes, and adjacent marginal seas.
The book is divided into three parts plus references and appendices and consists of 16 chapters:
In Part I. Perspectives and Regional Syntheses, a synthesis paper entitled Biogeochemistry of continental margins in the global context by Kon-Kee Liu, Larry Atkinson, Renato Quinones, and Liana Talaue-McManus sets the stage for the rest of the book. Under Regional Syntheses, the book deals with the various continental margin regions of eastern boundary currents, western boundary currents, Indian Ocean, subpolar, polar, marginal sea, and tropical margins. This main body of the book consists of 39 contributions written by experts who, generally, have personal experience with the physical and biogeochemical features of the regional continental margins under consideration. This section will constitute an important reference for those readers interested in the physical and biogeochemical behavior of regional continental margin ecosystems.
Part II. Arising Issues and New Approaches contains four chapters dealing with the subjects of human impacts on the continental margin, silica and implications of its cycling for the global carbon cycle, submarine groundwater discharge and associated nutrient fluxes, and coupled circulation-biogeochemical models for the continental margin used to estimate carbon flux.
The final four chapters constituting Part III. Cross Boundary Fluxes and Global Synthesis provide a global synthesis of what is known about cross boundary fluxes of carbon and nitrogen in marginal seas, carbon–nitrogen–phosphorus coupling in the coastal zone, sediment and carbon accumulation on the margins, and global synthesis of continental margin regions as used in the regional analysis of Part I.