on the injections of major and minor elements into the oceans, their 

 speciation, and regional mesoscale air-sea transport studies of reactive 

 and unreactive gases (e.g., the transfer coefficients), can be used to 

 calculate time-dependent fluxes. This information can then serve as the 

 basis for constructing three-dimensional models describing oceanic 

 processes that in turn provide the foundation for predictions of oceanic 

 conditions, predictions that, for operational needs such as those of the 

 Navy, can be considered the ultimate goal of oceanographic research. 



Two specific recommendations for future research were made: (1) 

 the study of plutonium chemistry of the ocean, and (2) chemical processes 

 occurring under and near ice. Plutonium is a toxic, radioactive, man- 

 made element whose behavior in the marine environment is inadequately 

 known. Only a few determinations have been made of its concentra- 

 tions in seawater, in marine organisms, and sediments. The use of 

 plutonium is expected to expand rapidly. Two of its nuclides, Pu-239 

 and Pu-238 are being used as fuels, and accidents have already released 

 both of them into the environment. The chemical behavior of plutonium 

 in the ocean cannot be extrapolated from what has been observed on 

 land, making it essential that the marine chemistry of this element be 

 understood. 



The second specific research recommendation was to study the factors 

 governing the composition of seawater below the polar ice cover. 

 Neither the effects of freezing of seawater on the chemistry of the 

 water-ice interface nor ice-related chemical processes are generally 

 well understood. The intermittently ice-covered polar seas may be 

 areas of strong air-sea gas exchange. The freezing process and biota 

 unique to the ice-seawater system may impart chemical properties to 

 this seawater that may be distinct from those of open-ocean regions. 



The research recommended, discussed during the workshop, and 

 summarized here was selected on the basis of immediate requirements 

 in the field of chemical oceanography. However, as was pointed out in 

 the Preface, the recommendations will also form the basis of a research 

 program to be appUed to solving diverse operational problems with 

 which the Navy is faced. For example, in some regions the scattering 

 of sound by biological populations in the upper layers can place practical 

 Hmits on the operation of low-frequency (2-20 kHz) sonar. In recent 

 years it has become clear that scattering strength varies over the oceans 

 in accordance with some pattern. The pattern is apparently associated 

 with variations in populations of marine organisms whose density and 

 distributions closely depend on other Unks in the food chain, on mixing, 

 thermal gradients, light, chemical nutrients, etc. A data base of volume 

 reverberation measurements has been accumulated for the development 

 of a prototype model for forecasting volume reverberation. Zones of 



