Environmental Quality Program 



This program is designed to provide information on the 

 quality of the oceanic environment and the assessment and 

 prediction of man's impact on this environment through research 

 in geochemical processes and marine pollution. The present 

 program consists of three major investigations: the Geochemical 

 Ocean Sections Study GEOSECS, which is concerned with 

 detailed measurement of physical and chemical characteristics 

 of ocean waters along Arctic to Antarctic sections; the Pollu- 

 tant Transfer Program, which involves investigations of mechan- 

 isms and pathways by which pollutants are transported to and 

 within the oceans; and the Biological Effects Program, which 

 assesses the impact of selected pollutants on marine organisms 

 and communities. 



Geochemical Ocean Sections 

 (GEOSECS) Study 



GEOSECS is an international cooperative program involv- 

 ing geochemists from 14 United States universities. Investigators 

 from Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, and 

 the United Kingdom are participating in the GEOSECS program 

 or are carrying out similar programs coordinated by the United 

 States. The U.S. program involved the occupation of 121 

 oceaographic stations in the Atlantic and 147 stations in the 

 Pacific. These stations were located along Jiorth-south survey 

 tracks and generally coincided with the paths of bottom-water 

 currents. Samples of water and suspended materials collected 

 at these stations and selected depths are being analyzed for 

 approximately 40 physical and chemical parameters, including 

 temperature, salinity, pH, alkalinity, Pco., dissolved and trace 

 gases, nutrients, trace metals, dissolved and particulate organic 

 and inorganic matter, natural radionuclides, manmade radio- 

 nuclides, and stable isotopes. 



The data are being used to determine the stirring and 

 reaction processes in the deep sea, the interchange of material 

 between deep and surface waters, and the exchange of water 

 and gases with the atmosphere. The data provide a baselme for 

 measuring amounts of pollutants, specifically nuclear and waste 

 products, that are being introduced into the ocean. Projects 

 in this program are listed in table 1. 



GEOSECS Data 



The GEOSECS operation group at the Scripps Institution 

 of Oceanography (SIO) has established a central data processing 

 facility. This facility is presently producing special data reports 

 for GEOSECS investigators and preparing a final data report of 

 shipboard analysis and several detailed chemical oceanographic 

 atlases. Laboratories have completed some analyses and have 

 forwarded these data to SIO (table 2). Analyses of the re- 

 maining Atlantic and Pacific samples are being completed. The 

 following data are available from NOAA Environmental Data 

 Service's National Oceanographic Data Center. 



NODC Accession No.: 74-0144 



Organization: Scripps Institution of Oceanography 



GEOSECS Operations Group 

 Investigator: Various geosecs participants 

 Grant No.: Various grants 



GEOSECS Atlantic, Final Hydrographic Data Report, RV 

 Knorr cruise 30, 24 July 1972 to 30 March 1973, 121 stations: 

 depth, temperature, salinity, oxygen, silicate, P04, and NO,. 

 This data is the final edited version and supersedes the pre- 

 viously submitted GEOSECS Atlantic data submission. 



GEOSECS Bibliography 



Brewer, P. G. and A. Bradshaw. 1975: The effect of the non- 

 ideal composition of sea water on salinity and density, 

 /. Mar. Res. 33(2) : 157-175. 



Brewer, P. G., G. T. F. Wong, M. P. Bacon, and D. W. Spencer. 

 1975: An oceanic calcium problem? Earth Planet. Set. 

 Lett. 26(l):81-87. 



Edmond, J. and E. A. Boyle. 1975: Copper in surface waters 

 south of New Zealand from GEOSECS stations in the Cir- 

 cumpolar Current, Nature 253(5487) : 107-109. 



Hager, S. W., E. L. Atals, L. I. Gordon, A. W. Mantyla, and 

 P. K. Park. 1972: A comparison at sea of manual and 

 AutoAnalyzer analysis of phosphate, nitrate, and silicate, 

 LimiwI. Oceaiwgr. 17(6) :931-937. 



Moore, W. S. 1976: Sampling --"Ra in the deep ocean, Deep- 

 Sea Res. 22:519-523. 



Ostlund, H. G. and H. G. Dorsey. 1976: Rapid electrolytic 

 enrichment and hydrogen gas proportional counting of 

 tritium, in Proceedings of International Conference on Low 

 Radioactivity Measurements and Applications, 6—10 Octo- 

 ber 1975, High Tatras, Czechoslovakia. 



Stuiver, M. and W. S. Broecker. 1975: The ageing and circu- 

 lation of West Atlantic Deep Water, in Proceedings of the 

 WMO/IAMAP Symposium on Long-Term Climatic Fluc- 

 tuations, Norwich, 18-23 August 1975. WMO Publication 

 No. 42, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 301-310. 



Stuiver, M. and S. W. Robinson. 1974: University of Wash- 

 ington GEOSECS North Atlantic carbon- 14 results, Earth 

 Planet. Sci. Lett. 23 ( 1 ): 87-90. 



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