The fourth edition of Oceanography: A View of the Earth by M. Grant Gross still remains the standard by which other introductory textbooks in oceanography must be measured.  As in previous editions, this new version attempts to introduce students to the oceanic realm and its biological, chemical, geological, and physical processes. For the intended audience, primarily composed of lower division undergraduates, Gross’ textbook succeeds admirably. The basic concepts are communicated to the student in a straightforward manner, with reasonable clarity, and without an overuse of technical jargon. Beginning undergraduates will greatly appreciate the obvious care that Gross has taken to make his book both readable and aesthetically pleasing. The book begins with a chapter on the history of man’s relationship with, and study of, the ocean (“History of Oceanography”), continues with three chapters on geological oceanography (“Ocean Basins,” “Plate Tectonics,” “Sediments”), one chapter on chemical oceanography (“Seawater”), one chapter on the interface between meteorology and oceanography (“Atmosphere and Climate”), four chapters  on physical oceanography (“Ocean Structure,” “Ocean Circulation,” “Waves,” “Tides and Tidal Currents”), one chapter on various aspects of coastal oceanography (“The Coastal Ocean”), three  chapters  on biological oceanography (“Biological Ocean Processes,” “Open Ocean Organisms,” “Bottom-Dwelling Organisms”), and concludes with seven useful and informative appendices. As with any textbook, some chapters are better than others. I found the chapters on geological and physical oceanography superior to the others, perhaps due to the author’s background or perhaps due to my own biases. In either case, most chapters benefit from an excellent selection of figures that illustrate clearly the patterns and processes described in the text. Overall, it is difficult to fault the text in any of the chapters, especially when you consider the breadth of coverage and the intended audience. Throughout the four editions of Oceanography: A View of the Earth, the text and figures have benefited greatly from Gross’s responsiveness to the comments and criticisms of students, teachers, and colleagues. Sincc I used the first edition of this textbook as a beginning undergraduate, I still remember the poor quality of many of the original illustrations. Although a few still remain (particularly in chapter 14, “Bottom-Dwelling Organisms”), most of the older illustrations have been replaced by greatly improved figures in subsequent editions. The aesthetic appeal of the book has improved steadily with each iteration in its 15-year history. If I must register a major complaint about illustrations in the fourth edition, it has to be directed at the color plates. Color plates are expensive, and certainty have an effect on the final price to the student. In this case, however, the plates are beautiful as well as informative (except in the case of plate 3 1, which misidentifies a ctenophore as a sea wasp), and clearly worthy of inclusion. Why then did the author or publishers choose to place the satellite and remote-sensing plates in the chapter on sediments, and the plates illustrating pelagic animals in the chapter on waves? Absurd! As with any textbook in its fourth edition, Oceanography: A View of the Earth has been successful in exploiting a particular niche in the educational book market. For a basic qualitative introduction to oceanography, this textbook is without peer in giving firstor secondyear undergraduates their first taste of the ocean sciences. Certainly science and engineering students may require additional quantitative lecture material to supplement Gross’s book, but I find it remarkable that a single textbook can be as appropriate for the nonscience major with an interest in  the ocean as it is to the science major contemplating a career in oceanography or ocean engineering. Such versatility should discourage (or preferably challenge) competitors and insure a strong marketplace for this book in the years to come. *

Oceanography: A view of the earth

The climate sensitivity question is examined from the viewpoint of surface energy balance considerations. This approach clarifies the role of ocean-atmosphere interactions in determining the surface warming to an increase in CO2. The study uses a one-dimensional, 17-layer, coupled ocean-atmosphere model. The primary contribution to the surface warming is from the enhanced tropospheric IR emission, which is an order of magnitude greater than the direct CO2 radiative heating at the surface. The source for this enhancement is the increased H2O evaporation from the warmer oceans in the CO2 rich atmosphere and, hence, ocean-atmosphere interactions play a crucial role in determining the magnitude of the surface warming as well as its transient response. This ocean-atmosphere feedback is implicitly included in model studies, but past analysts of model results have not highlighted this aspect of the problem. Consequently, published empirical approaches based on surface energy balance considerations (unaw...

The role of ocean‐atmosphere interactions in the CO2 climate problem

The Atlantic Ocean receives warm, saline water from the Indo-Pacific Ocean through Agulhas leakage around the southern tip of Africa. Recent findings suggest that Agulhas leakage is a crucial component of the climate system and that ongoing increases in leakage under anthropogenic warming could strengthen the Atlantic overturning circulation at a time when warming and accelerated meltwater input in the North Atlantic is predicted to weaken it. Yet in comparison with processes in the North Atlantic, the overall Agulhas system is largely overlooked as a potential climate trigger or feedback mechanism. Detailed modelling experiments—backed by palaeoceanographic and sustained modern observations—are required to establish firmly the role of the Agulhas system in a warming climate.

On the Role of the Agulhas System in Ocean Circulation and Climate

Stable hydrogen and carbon isotopes of C37 alkenones during Termination I and II

NW Africa and SE Australia are regions which are particularly vulnerable to climate change. In this thesis, organic proxies are used from marine sediment cores to reconstruct past environmental conditions from these areas. 
In sediments from NW Africa, the UK'37 showed an efficient proxy for sea surface temperature (SST) reconstruction, while the TEXH86 reconstructed thermocline temperatures. The UK'37 and TEXH86 records for the last 192 ka showed that periods of reduced AMOC coincide with a reduction in the vertical temperature gradient. Thus, variations in AMOC strength is a driver of the thermocline structure in the tropical Atlantic. Three independent organic proxies (UK’37,TEXH86 and LDI) were used to reconstruct SSTs for the last 135 ka in sediments from offshore SE Australia. Comparison with SST estimates based on foraminiferal assemblages shows that LDI temperatures compared well with the temperature of the warmest month, TEXH86 with the temperature of the coolest month and UK’37 with mean annual temperature. Thus, the application of these 3 proxies together at this area enables the reconstruction of SST variations from different seasons. 

Accumulation rates and concentrations of biomarkers from marine plankton classes were used to examine the changes in productivity at the above mentioned sites during the late Quaternary. In NW Africa, a positive correlation was observed between TOC content, productivity proxies (for dinoflagellates, eustigmatophytes, haptophytes) and the sedimentary Fe, in particular during periods of high aridity on the continent. Thus, the productivity in this area is considerably influenced by the fertilization effect of the Sahara dust, while in SE Australia, Proboscia diatom productivity seems to be controlled by the transport of silicic acid to this area as increases in its productivity matched increased diatom productivity observed at some sites of the tropical equatorial Pacific. 
To assess changes in the vegetation of NW Africa and SE Australia, the d13C of the n-alkanes from plant leaf waxes were analysed. Sediments from the NW Africa reveal three periods (early Holocene, 50–45 and 120–110 ka) during the past 192 ka when the central Sahara/Sahel contained a higher percentage of C3 plants, indicating wetter conditions than at present. A remarkably close correlation between d13C of benthic foraminifera and n-alkanes indicates a connection between variability in AMOC strength and vegetation type in the Sahara/Sahel region. The n-alkane d13C record from SE Australia reveals an extensive period (68-31ka) of high C4 plant abundance that is punctuated by a sharp increase in C3 vegetation at ~43 ka. This sharp increase in C3 vegetation lasts ~5 ka and is characterized by increased levels of biomass burning. Thus, this vegetation change was likely caused by increased burning events and/or by reduced herbivory as it follows the main period of the late Quaternary megafauna extinction in Australia. This thesis demonstrates the benefit of applying multiple organic proxies on marine sediments to assess marine and terrestrial paleoenvironmental changes and it has thereby provided new insights in the cause and effect of environmental changes in marine and continental areas of NW Africa and SE Australia.

Reconstruction of late Quaternary marine and terrestrial environmental conditions of Northwest Africa and Southeast Australia A multiple organic proxy study using marine sediments

The extent of the general warming related to increasing anthropogenic CO2 emission and its implications for the global climate system are currently under heavy debate. In particular the extrapolation of long term climatic trends relies on complex climate models for the interaction between the atmosphere, the oceans and the land surface. In turn these models require validation based on continuous time series of observational data. However, instrumental based data records only extend as far back as approximately 150 years and thus make the validation of long-term modelling experiments difficult. To obtain information on past climate beyond the instrumental period, so-called paleoceanographic proxies are used. Two of the most targeted paleoceanographic parameters are the sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface salinity, which determine water density. While past ocean temperatures can be reconstructed relatively accurately from various independent methods, the accurate reconstruction of past ocean salinity has proven to be more difficult. A promising new method for the reconstruction of past ocean salinity has been suggested to come from the hydrogen isotope composition of long chain alkenones (δDalkenone) derived from marine haptophyte algae. Culture studies have shown a strong correlation between hydrogen isotope fractionation and salinity, with decreasing fractionation with increasing salinity. In order to test the applicability of the δDalkenone as a salinity proxy, this thesis presents studies on sedimentary records obtained from various open ocean settings including the greater Agulhas System south of the African continent, the Eastern Tropical Atlantic and the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, as well as coastal ocean margin settings in the Mozambique Channel and offshore Southeast Australia.

Reconstruction of past changes in ocean salinity - a compound specific stable hydrogen isotope approach

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Reconstruction of past changes in ocean salinity - a compound specific stable hydrogen isotope approach