Introduction to ENV2A4Y Geochemical Cycles

In this course we deliberately set out to teach something substantially different to a traditional geochemistry course that might be on offer in Earth Science departments (and therefore hopefully more useful to everyone taking a degree in Environmental Science). The lecturers have a wide higher educational background: (1) Julian Andrews has a background in Environmental Science and Earth Science; (2) Peter Liss and Tim Jickells have backgrounds in Chemistry and Chemical Oceanography; (3) Andy Watson has a background in Physics and Global Biogeochemistry. In this course we attempt to blend these diverse backgrounds. Each lecturer has a distinctive contribution, which when merged creates a wide ranging, interdisciplinary course.

Background reading

You may wish to fill-in some general background in geochemistry (we know that ENV 1A76 Environmental Chemistry is a short and rather focused course). There are a number of interesting books on the subject, and the following four are a good read.

C. Allegre (1992) From Stone to Star. Harvard University Press.

W. Broecker (1985) How to Build a Habitable Planet. Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Columbia University.

J. E. Lovelock. (1979) Gaia. A new look at life on Earth. Oxford University Press.

J. E. Lovelock (1984) Ages of Gaia. Oxford University Press.

It is also worth keeping an eye on magazines like New Scientist and Scientific American, and the TV and radio listings for relevant science programmes.

Text Books

You may already have a copy of the first year text,

J.E. Andrews, P. Brimblecombe, T.D. Jickells, P.S. Liss & B.J. Reid (2004) An Introduction to Environmental Chemistry. 2nd Ed., Blackwell Science.

It will be worth holding on to this book for 2A4Y. Many sections are directly relevant, although you will need to supplement the information with material from scientific papers and other books as directed by the lecturer. In any case we expect you to be familiar with all the material in this book.

No single text book covers the course as a whole. We can recommend the following text:

1. S.M. Libes (1992) An Introduction to Marine Biogeochemistry. Wiley (Semester 1)

There are many other geochemisty and environmental chemistry texts available. Most of these are in the library. If you are thinking of buying any of these it may be worth checking with the lecturers first. We don’t want you to waste your money.

General Information Gathering

Aside from books (above) and scientific papers (below) there is an ever increasing amount of information on the WWW and from dedicated earth science software. Remember that YOU have to decide on the quality of information available on the WWW. However, making this type of decision is part of the learning process. Dedicated software, (available on the Lab D server), can be really useful and some of the images etc. are excellent. You can browse through these (good for Earth Sciences generally) or go for ones with clear geochemical relevance. The module BASIC SKILLS IN EARTH SCIENCES has sections under WHAT IS THE EARTH MADE OF? on BUILDING BLOCKS IN GEOLOGY, ATOMIC STRUCTURE AND BONDING, and OXIDATION AND REDUCTION. Most of the material and concepts here are first year level and we expect you to be familiar with them. The section on RADIOGENIC AND STABLE ISOTOPES is certainly very relevant.

Scientific Papers

You will frequently be referred to original scientific papers (available in the library). It is essential to follow up recommended reading on this course. Review papers can often be more helpful than textbooks. When demand seems likely to be high for particular papers we adopt various strategies for making them readily available, including putting copies in the restricted loan section of the library. During course graded assignments you may also need to find papers on a particular subject or by a particular author. An easy way of doing this for post 1990 publications is by using the UEA library online CD ROM version of Geoabstracts. The package is called GEOBASE and is available via the UEA CD ROM Services (network). You should already be familiar with the WEB OF SCIENCE, available to you under the Library's electronic resources.

Practicals

These are held each week, usually for 3 hours. Mostly they involve thematic exercises related to the lectures given in the same week. The form of practicals will vary and may include; (1) chemical laboratory work; (2) field sampling; (3) numeric and other types of paper or computing exercises; (4) discussion groups and demonstrations. At times during the course we may use the practical slots for aspects of the course grading (poster presentations, tests etc.). The material covered in practicals will rarely be repeated in lectures and probably won’t be available in the literature. You cannot afford to miss them. These sessions will be a training in skills you need; not least to answer exam questions.

Lectures

We will typically give 3 lectures per week (sometimes only 2). Sometimes we give good lectures; sometimes not so good. Always, however, they are our best opportunity to define for you the ground we want to cover, to highlight key issues, explain concepts and bring you up to date in a way the literature cannot do (no matter how assiduously you read). Do attend regularly. Well-kept lecture and practical notes can be your best friend in preparing for examinations - although we do not want you to neglect the very important contribution that reading will make.

2003/4 Programme

We expect the programme to run roughly as follows:

Semester 1

Lectures Weeks 1-6 & 8-9 (Practicals Weeks 1-6 & 8-9). Tim Jickells and Peter Liss. Chemistry of the oceans.

Reading Week - Week 7

Lectures Weeks 10 to 12 (Practicals Weeks 10 to 12). Andy Watson. Air - sea exchange, global cycles.

Semester 2

Lectures Weeks 1 to 8 (Practicals Weeks 1 to 8). Julian Andrews. Mid ocean ridges, carbonate chemistry and isotopes, chemical history and evolution of seawater, early diagenesis in sediments, organic matter, linked C and S cycles.

Lectures Weeks 8-11 (Practicals Weeks 8-11). New lecturer in Atmospheric Chemistry (details to follow).

Individual lecturers will give details of their teaching schedules at the appropriate time.

Further course details can be found in the ENV Guide to the Honours Programme in Environmental Sciences.

Return to ENV 2A4Y Geochemical Cycles home page, or Return to the ENV courses home page

This page was last updated on 15 September 2005

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