Facets of Modern Biogeochemistry: Festschrift for E.T. Degens

ISBN-13: 9783642739804 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 433 str.

Venugopalan Ittekkot; Stephan Kempe; Walter Michaelis

Opis

Scientists who have had the opportunity of being associated with Professor Egon T. Degens, to whom this Festschrift is devoted, have been influenced by his ideas on subjects as varied as: extraterrestrial organic matter, origin of life, evolution of organisms, isotope biogeochemistry down to more imminent ones such as the carbon cycle and its implications on climate. This variety is also reflected in the papers in the present volume contributed by colleagues who have known Egon or have worked with him. Egon Theodor Degens was born on April 16, 1928 at Inden, Germany and had his education in Bonn and Wiirzburg. After a stint at the Pennsylvania State University he returned to Wiirzburg to help set up one of the first organic geochemistry laboratories in the world. This laboratory was the breeding ground for some of the eminent organic geochemists at work today. Later, he joined the California Institute of Technology and began his work on stable carbon isotopes, and later on biogeochemical compounds in natural waters. From California he moved on to the east coast, which led to yet another productive phase at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He was instrumental in the pioneering work carried out by the Woods Hole scientists in the Black Sea which is the largest anoxic basin in the world, and in the Red Sea where the first hydrothermal ore deposits on the seafloor were discovered.

Spis treści

1 Introduction.- 2 General Concepts in Biogeochemistry.- Geophysiology of Carbonates as a Function of Bioplanets.- Biomimetic Geochemistry —A Speculation.- Global Change: Real Time Geochemistry.- Biogeochemical Problems of Living Matter of the Present-Day Biosphere.- The Geologic Enigma of the Red Sea Rift.- Ocean Particles and Fluxes of Material to the Interior of the Deep Ocean; The Azoic Theory 120 Years Later.- Use of Multivariate Statistical Analysis in Geology — Two Examples.- 3 Geochemistry of River Systems and Coastal Areas.- River Discharge of Water and Sediment to the Oceans: Variations in Space and Time.- Minerals in Soils and in Suspended Matter of Rivers and Their Climatic Zonation.- Assessment of P, K, Ca Dynamics During Land-Use Changes.- Nutrients in the Turbidity Zone of the Elbe River.- Dispersal of Mahakam River Suspended Sediment in Makasar Strait, Indonesia.- Transport of Water and Sediment in the Strait of Dover.- New Concepts in Patch Recognition of Suspendend Matter in Coastal Areas.- Lateral Distribution and Sources of Sediment-Associated Heavy Metals in the North Sea.- 4 Isotopes in Biogeochemistry.- Carbon and Hydrogen Isotope Variations in Marine Sediment Gases.- Stable Carbon Isotope Composition of Pelagic and Benthic Organic Matter in the North Sea and Adjacent Estuaries.- Sulphur Bacteria and Sulphur Isotope Fractionation in a Meromictic Lake near Toronto, Canada.- Carbonate Crusts in the Red Sea: Their Composition and Isotope Geochemistry.- 5 Inorganic Geochemistry.- Calcium Carbonate Supersaturation and the Formation of in situ Calcified Stromatolites.- Pleistocene/Upper Pliocene Sapropels in the Tyrrhenian Sea.- Indicators for Holocene Changes in Relative Sea Level.- 6 Organic Geochemistry.- Amino Acids in Marine Aerosol and Rain.- The Terrestrial Link in the Removal of Organic Carbon in the Sea.- Geochemistry and Origin of the Holocene Sapropel in the Black Sea.- Early Diagenesis of Organic Matter in Peru Upwelling Area Sediments.- Hydrothermal Petroleum Generation from Immature Organic Matter — Implications to the Oceanic Carbon Cycle.- Structural Inferences from Organic Geochemical Coal Studies.- Catalytic Versus Noncatalytic Degradation of Organic Matter Related to Its Gas Productivity.- Hydrofluoric Acid Induced Alterations of Sedimentary Humic Acids.