INTRODUCTION TO OCEANOGRAPHY I REPORT

THE OCEAN AND ITS CONNECTITY TO THE GLOBAL SYSTEM

Timoci Koliyavu – Faculty Science, Room 702, University of Ryukyus, Japan

Abstract

The role of the ocean on weather and climate is often discussed in many ways. Who has not heard
of El Niño and global warming, the Atlantic hurricane season and storm surges? Yet, what
exactly is the role of the ocean? And, why do we care? Oceanography is becoming much more
closely integrated into earth-system science and many scientists are now trying to understand the
role of the ocean in weather, climate, and global change. While oceanographers are making more
and more use of remote sensing systems, including: satellites, drifters, remotely operated vehicles,
autonomous undersea vehicles, and sub-sea observing systems; computers and numerical
modeling systems have also been designed for oceanography. This document tries to link the
basics of oceanography to other disciplines such as environmental and physical sciences and also
reveals its relations with the global climate and its changes.

1. Introduction

Oceanography is the application of fundamental science (mainly physics, chemistry,

biology, geology) to understand the ocean and determine how it influences the world in
which we live. Geological oceanographers, for instance, study the composition and
processes of sea-floor structures while physical oceanographers study the physics of the
seas, physical properties and physical movements of the oceans.

Chemical oceanographers, on the other hand, study the chemical make-up of the sea and
biological oceanographers, or marine biologists, study marine organisms; from the
smallest single-celled organisms to the largest fish and mammals and their interactions in
marine ecosystems.

Intensive scientific study of the ocean, begun in the last century, and is expected to
expand in scope considerably during the present century. There's a basic need to
understand the ocean which covers 70% of the Earth's surface. As this understanding
develops, it leads to improvements in other inter-related areas such as climate prediction,
weather forecasting, environmental protection, fisheries, waste disposal, and the recovery
of oil and minerals. Because of our relative ignorance of the sea and its growing

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 INTRODUCTION TO OCEANOGRAPHY I REPORT

importance to human survival and welfare, career prospects for oceanographers are
promising.

The environmental conditions of Earth, including the climate, are determined by physical,
chemical, biological, and human interactions that transform and transport materials and
energy. This is the "Earth system": a highly complex entity characterized by multiple
nonlinear responses and thresholds, with linkages between. (Thurman, et al., 2001).

In order to study this system a combination of theory, observations, and computer models
also implies a new way of doing oceanography. In the past, an oceanographer would
devise a theory, collect data to test the theory, and publish the results.

Now, the tasks have become so specialized that few can do it all while a few excel in
theory, collecting data, and numerical simulations. Instead, the work is done more and
more by teams of scientists and engineers.

2. Earth – Ocean Interaction

The Earth behaves as a system in which oceans, atmosphere, land, and the living and
non-living parts therein, are all connected, Oldroyd, D. R. (1996). This system is
composed of interacting physical, chemical, and biological processes that move and
change materials and energy on earth, and also provides the conditions necessary for life
on the planet.

For example, plants use solar energy to change carbon dioxide into organic carbon while
winds and ocean currents move heat from the tropics to higher latitudes. Now humans
have begun to influence the planet, changing the operation of many systems. Because all
systems are interconnected, a change in one system influences all other systems.

3. The Ocean and Climate

The ocean influences the transformation of energy and materials important to the climate
system. Most of the sunlight are absorbed at the ocean surface warming it, but loses heat

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 INTRODUCTION TO OCEANOGRAPHY I REPORT

by evaporation. Trade winds carry the evaporated water vapor to the Inter-Tropical
Convergence Zone where it condenses as rain.

This releases heat and warms the air which rises further, drawing in warm wet air which
releases more heat. So much heat is released by rain in the Inter-Tropical Convergence
Zone that it drives much of the atmospheric circulation. At higher latitudes this drives
storms and winds where heat released by rain in hurricanes and thunderstorms drives
these storms. The ocean also loses heat by sending out infrared radiation, mostly in the
tropics. These are absorbed by water vapor in the tropical atmosphere, further heating the
atmosphere and thus driven by ocean currents from the tropics to the polar regions.

4. The Ocean and Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas which helps keep the earth cool by absorbing
radiation from the earth's surface. Increasing amounts of CO2 slowly warms the earth.
The ocean holds 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere meaning that half of earth's
primary production occurs in the ocean. Primary producers in the ocean are the
phytoplankton and they also produce oxygen as a by product of this reaction.

Conversions of these hydrocarbons back to CO2 during death or when they are eaten.
Sometimes they sink to sea floor sediments and later used to produce fossil fuels. CO2
dissolving in cold water in Arctic and Antarctic is carried away in deep currents in winter
but surfaces years later by mixing in warm areas where it is released back into the air.
This process allows the ocean to store great quantities of carbon dioxide for many
centuries.

5. Connectivity

From this simple discussion of the climate system, we can say that we must understand
how the earth, with its atmosphere, greenhouse gases, ocean, life, winds, and currents all
interact to produce our climate. The ocean is one big part of the earth system whereby it
connects with the atmosphere, and land through the climate system which may change in
one area and causes changes everywhere else. Everything is connected, and everything

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 INTRODUCTION TO OCEANOGRAPHY I REPORT

influences everything else. For example, rain heats the atmosphere, warm air rises,
creating wind which in turn drives ocean currents. These currents help determine where
phytoplankton live and phytoplankton help determine where clouds are formed. Thus
these clouds influence where the atmosphere is heated and this determines the amount of
evaporation in the ocean.

The resultants of these connections are such that every connected system has just the
right conditions to function naturally without exhaustion. For example, the Earth has a
surface temperature that is just right for life, while the supply for water vapor from the
ocean is just enough for setting the earth’s right temperature.

6. Reality Issues

Due to the rapid increase of global population, demands have to be met in terms of
satisfying our needs and wants and this often leads to destruction of these inter-connected
systems. In most developing states, for example, reality is such that most of the natural
resources are being destructed which in turn upsets the so called natural balance of the
system.

Global warming and increased CO2 levels is one of the hot issues at stake and studies
have revealed its linkages to major climatic variations such as increased occurrence and
intensities of cyclones and rainfall in certain parts of the globe.

Till todate, a lot of studies and researches are being done to try and understand these
variations and come up with possible mitigations to best suit the type of environment we
live in.

7. Conclusion

The ocean is one part of the earth system and mediates processes in the atmosphere by
the transfers of mass, momentum, and energy through the sea surface. Thus it has a direct
linkage to various systems such as the climate process, chemical, biological and
metrological cycles and other fundamental processes. Hence an understanding of the

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 INTRODUCTION TO OCEANOGRAPHY I REPORT

ocean is important for understanding the earth as a system, especially for understanding
important problems such as global climatic change or global warming.

8. References and Readings

Gross, M. Grant and Elizabeth Gross (1996) Oceanography A View of Earth. 7th Edition.
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Lelieveld, J. (2006). "Climate change: A nasty surprise in the greenhouse." Nature 443
(7110): 405-406.

Levitus, S., J. Antonov, et al. (2005). Warming of the world ocean. Geophysical
Research Letters 32 (1).
Oldroyd, D. R. (1996). Thinking About the Earth: A History of Ideas in Geology.
Cambridge Massachusetts, Harvard University Press.

Open University (1989) Ocean Circulation. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Open University (1989) Seawater: Its Composition, Properties and Behavior. Oxford:
Pergamon Press.

Open University (1989) Waves, Tides and Shallow-Water Processes. Oxford: Pergamon
Press.

Pinet, Paul R. (2000) Invitation to Oceanography. 2nd Edition. Sudbury, Massachusetts:

Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Thurman, Harold V. and Elizabeth A. Burton (2001) Introductory Oceanography. 9th

Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall

Wunsch (2005). The Total Meridional Heat Flux and Its Oceanic and Atmospheric
Partition. Journal of Climate, 18: 2374–2380.

Ratu Timoci Turagayawa Koliyavu

ID : 078283 B