Sediment Geochemistry

Ocean sediments can provide long, continuous, high-resolution records of ocean biology and chemistry, and “proxy” records of ocean physical properties (temperature and salinity) and circulation patterns. Reading these records is not always easy, though - the sea floor is not a passive recorder, but a vast, variable ecosystem, characterized by active physical and biological particle mixing, and a complex suite of linked biogeochemical reactions and transformations. Sediment geochemistry research at WHOI includes studies of:

Sediment geochemistry research at WHOI include studies of:

• Organic matter decomposition and burial
• Calcium carbonate dissolution and preservation
• Microbial interactions in benthic communities
• The cycling of redox-sensitive trace metals
• Authigenic mineral formation
• Records of bottom water oxygen and carbon flux
• Preservation/alteration of upper-ocean proxy records
• Sedimentary organic geochemistry

Each of these processes influences chemical fluxes and distributions in the modern ocean, each varies in response to climate-linked changes in ocean circulation and biogeochemistry, and each leaves records in the sediment column.

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