Oceans account for 50% of the anthropogenic CO2 released into the atmosphere. During the past 15 years an international programme, the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), has been studying the ocean carbon cycle to quantify and model the biological and physical processes whereby CO2 is pumped from the ocean's surface to the depths of the ocean, where it can remain for hundreds of years. This project is one of the largest multi-disciplinary studies of the oceans ever carried out and this book synthesises the results. It covers all aspects of the topic ranging from air-sea exchange with CO2, the role of physical mixing, the uptake of CO2 by marine algae, the fluxes of carbon and nitrogen through the marine food chain to the subsequent export of carbon to the depths of the ocean. Special emphasis is laid on predicting future climatic change.

A comprehensive, state-of-the-art synthesis of biogeochemical dynamics and the impact of human alterations at major river-coastal interfaces for advanced students and researchers.

Continued global warming and ocean acidification are predicted with high confidence, while the direction and magnitude of changes of other atmospheric drivers (e.g. precipitation, wind) and nutrient loading are of high uncertainty and regionally dependent. Biogeochemical responses of coastal shelf seas to external drivers are often nonlinear, involving feedback that may amplify or dampen a perturbation imposed on the system. Coupled physical-biogeochemical process-based numerical models have proven useful in elucidating the mechanistic interplay and relative importance of the different factors contributing to ecosystem functioning with increasing realism. This research topic aims to understand and compare marine ecosystem functioning in Chinese and European shelf seas, based on studies that use state-of-the-art modeling and monitoring of coastal ecosystem dynamics. This topic will enable more efficient knowledge share and distribution through a comparative assessment between distinct coastal shelf systems in China and Europe to further our understanding of complicated ecosystem dynamics in response to a changing climate and increasing anthropogenic pressure. It will allow us to better understand the sensitivity of coastal shelf ecosystem functioning to physical and biogeochemical perturbations, the role of shelf seas in global carbon cycling, and the resilience of Chinese and European shelf seas to ongoing and future changes in climate and anthropogenic activities.

This study describes the fundamentals of assessing the vulnerability of coral islands, as well as environmental management and resource exploitation. Using seabird subfossils, such as bones, guano, eggshells etc., which have been well preserved on the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea, the author identifies the influences of climate change and human activity on seabird populations and diets. Understanding the past is of great importance for predicting the future, and seabird subfossils provide valuable information, which can be used to study changes in seabird ecology, paleoceanography and palaeoclimate. Furthermore, this study proposes examining the biogeochemical cycling of some elements present in the geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere. Dr. Liqiang Xu works at the Hefei University of Technology, China.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of human-induced climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. This IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the observed and projected changes to the ocean and cryosphere and their associated impacts and risks, with a focus on resilience, risk management response options, and adaptation measures, considering both their potential and limitations. It brings together knowledge on physical and biogeochemical changes, the interplay with ecosystem changes, and the implications for human communities. It serves policymakers, decision makers, stakeholders, and all interested parties with unbiased, up-to-date, policy-relevant information. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.