ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY PROGRAM 



This program is designed to provide information on the 

 quality of the marine environment and to assess and predict 

 man's impact on the oceans through research on geochemical 

 processes and marine pollution. The present program consists 

 of four major investigations: Geochemical Ocean Sections 

 Study (GEOSECS) makes detailed measurements of physical 

 and chemical characteristics of ocean waters along Arctic to 

 Antarctic transects; Pollutant Transfer Program investigates 

 mechanisms and pathways by which pollutants are transported 

 to and within the oceans; Biological Effects Program assesses 

 the impact of selected pollutants on marine organisms; and 

 Controlled Ecosystem Pollution Experiment (CEPEX) provides 

 information on the effects of pollutants on pelagic marine com- 

 munities contained in large plastic enclosures. 



Geochemical Ocean Sections Study (GEOSECS) 



GEOSECS is an international cooperative program involving 

 geochemists from 14 U.S. universities. Investigators from Bel- 

 gium, Canada, France, Federal Republic of Germany, India, 

 Japan, and the United Kingdom are also participating in 

 GEOSECS or are carrying out similar programs coordinated by 

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

 121 oceanographic stations in the Atlantic and 147 stations in 

 the Pacific. A similar study was conducted in the Indian Ocean 

 to complete a baseline survey of the world oceans and confirm 

 large-scale and small-scale mixing patterns found in the Atlantic 

 and Pacific. Stations were occupied along the western side of 

 the Indian Ocean, and the remaining stations were completed 

 in April 1978. At each station, 15 chemical measurements were 

 made aboard ship; an additional 20 will be obtained from 

 samples analyzed in laboratories at 12 major universities. 



Cruise tracks in the Indian Ocean were designed to include 

 sampling of the circumpolar deep water along its 10,000-km 

 boundary. The planned survey using three major north-south 

 transects from India to the Antarctic continent will help to 

 determine sources of water masses and their rates of movement 

 (fig. 1). 



Relationships between chemical and physical parameters that 

 were found to be highly useful for predictive modeling in the 

 Atlantic and Pacific Ocean are being confirmed and tested in 



the Indian Ocean. Knowledge of the carbon-oxygen system and 

 the extent to which the oceans can absorb the products of fossil 

 fuel combustion are being used in chemical assessment studies. 

 Both shipboard and shorebased measurements from GEOSECS 

 have contributed to present knowledge. (Table 1 lists tasks in 

 this project.) 



GEOSECS Data 



GEOSECS data received during the period of this report are 



available from NODC as follows: 



NODC Accession No.: 76-1522 



Organization: Scripps Institution of Oceanography/ GEOSECS 

 Operations Group (GOG) 



Investigators and Grant Nos.: W. Broecker (LDGO) GX-28164; 

 D. W. Spencer (WHOI) GX-28161, OCE71-04195, OCE72- 

 06421; A. Bainbridge (SIO/GOG) GX-28162, OCE7 1-04 196; 

 J. M. Edmond (MIT) GX-32976, GX-35033, OCE72- 

 06432; L. I. Gordon GX-28167; H. G. Ostlund (RSMAS) 

 GX-28165, OCE71-04199; H. Craig (SIO) GX-28163; 

 M. Stuiver (UW) GX-28166, OCE7 1-04200; P. Brewer 

 (WHOI) GX-33295; T. Takahashi (CUNY) GX-33293; 

 T.-L. Ku (USC) GX-33292, OCE72-06418; R. Weiss 

 (SIO) OCE76-18898 



Project: GEOSECS Pacific (RV Melville, 10 cruise legs) 

 August 22, 1973, to June 10, 1974 



Data: 147 ocean stations, 136 STDs, including oxygen, silicates, 

 phosphates, nitrates. Data received in publication, GEOSECS 

 Pacific, Final Hydrographic Data Report 22 August 1973 to 

 10 June 1974, RV Melville, and in NODC-computer com- 

 patible magnetic tape. 



GEOSECS Bibliography 



Boyle, E. A., F. Sclater, and J. M. Edmond. 



1976. On the marine geochemistry of cadmium. Nature 

 263:42-44. 



Broecker, W. S., and T. Takahashi. 



1977. Neutralization of fossil fuel C0 2 by marine calcium 

 carbonate. In: N. R. Anderson and A. Malahoff (editors), 

 The fate of fossil fuel CO.. in the oceans, p. 213-241. Plenum 

 Publ. Co., N.Y. 



Chan, L. H., D. Drummond, J. M. Edmond, and B. Grant. 

 1977. On the barium data from the Atlantic GEOSECS 

 Expedition. Deep-Sea Res. 24:613-649. 



Chan, L. H., J. M. Edmond, R. F. Stallard, W. S. Broecker, 

 Y. C. Chang, R. F. Weiss, and T. L. Ku. 



1976. Radium and barium at GEOSECS stations in the 

 Atlantic and Pacific. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 32:258-267. 

 (GEOSECS Collected Papers: 1973-1976.) 



Fine, R. A., and G. Ostlund. 



1977. Source function for tritium transport models in the 

 Pacific. Geophys. Res. Lett. 4:461-464. 



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