Chemistry of Aquatic Systems: Local and Global Perspectives

Aquatic systems play a salient role in the complex processes of energy and matter exchange between the geosphere and the atmosphere. Furthermore, the inextricable links between the water cycle, the geosphere and the atmosphere ensure that apparently localized environmental problems are increasingly seen to have impacts in other parts of the world. In order to identify local-to-global scale variables associated with environmental changes, one must concentrate on the recognition of processes, rather than placing a continued reliance on the monitoring of state variables. But in heterogeneous aquatic systems, small-scale aspects of a process under observation may not be summed directly to obtain regional estimates.
The objectives of the Chemistry of Aquatic Systems: Local and Global Perspectives are:
to illustrate how land, water and atmosphere are coupled by hydrogeochemical cycles and how these cycles affect the chemistry of natural waters;
to strengthen our understanding of the cycling of nutrients, metals and organic carbon in marine and lacustrine systems;
to give an account of current research and water technological applications of the processes occurring at the solid--water interface;
to illustrate how pollutants are transformed, degraded and transported, and how to link processes occurring at different spatial and temporal scales. This is a tutorial book, written in such a way that the general principles are understood before progressing on to theoretical models, laboratory systems and real-world processes.
For geochemists, water and soil scientists, environmental engineers, and students of these disciplines.

Based on the lectures given during the Eurocourse on `Chemistry of Aquatic Systems: Local and Global Perspectives' held at the Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy, September 27--October 1, 1993

I. Atmosphere - Rock - Water Interactions.- 1. Acquisition of Solutes and Regulation of the Composition of Natural Waters.- 2. Regulation of Drainage Water Composition by Biotic Processes in Terrestrial Ecosystems.- 3. Aquatic Carbonate Systems: Chemical Processes in Natural Waters and Global Cycles.- 4. Modeling of Heterogeneous Chemistry in the Global Troposphere.- II. Metals, Nutrients and Organic Carbon.- 5. Biogeochemistry of Organic Matter in Coastal Ocean Waters.- 6. Microbial Transformation of Metals in Relation to the Biogeochemical Cycle.- 7. Metal Speciation: Concepts, Analysis and Effects.- 8. Light-Induced Processes in the Aquatic Environment.- 9. Trace Metal/Phytoplankton Interactions in the Sea.- 10. Optical Remote Sensing of Marine Ecosystems: Bio-Geochemical Implications of Ocean Colour, Marine Productivity and Atmospheric Interactions.- III. The Solid-Water Interface.- 11. Reactions at the Mineral-Water Interface.- 12. Surface Processes in Water Technology.- IV. Transformation, Degradation and Transport of Pollutants. Spatial and Temporal Scaling.- 13. Sources and Reactivity of Reductants Encountered in Aquatic Environments.- 14. Abiotic Transformation Pathways of Organic Chemicals in Aquatic Ecosystems.- 15. Coupled Processes in Reaction-Flow Transport of Contaminants.- 16. Scale Effects in the Transport of Contaminants in Natural Media.- 17. Modeling the Hydrologic and Biogeochemical Response of a Catchment Area to Anthropogenic Inputs.- 18. Spectral Properties of Soils and the Use of Optical Remote Sensing Systems for Soil Erosion Mapping.