Marine matter

In coastal areas, measurements of 513C in bulk organic matter can help identify the origins of organic material in sediments. In general, material produced using the dominant C3 photosynthetic pathway has a value of 513C around -27 %o for terrestrial matter and around -20 %o for marine matter (Deines, 1980). The interpretation of such results is complicated because some plants use the C4 photosynthetic pathway, which... 

Derivation Extraction from animal, vegetable, and marine matter. 

Whenever a piece of metal is immersed in seawater, within a few seconds it will be covered by a viscous, biological humour, a so-called zooglea, on which then all the marine matter built up from plants, marine animals, especially molluscs with or without a shell such as barnacles, corals, algae, sponges, etc., will develop. 

Reactions of Goal Ash. Mineral matter impurities have an important effect on the utili2ation of a coal. One of the constituents of greatest concern is pyrite because of the potential for sulfur oxide generation on combustion. The highest concentrations of pyrite are associated with coal deposition under marine environments, as typified by the Illinois Basin, including parts of Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. Additionally, the mineral matter... 

This removal may also include diffusion of soluble U(VI) from seawater into the sediment via pore water. Uranium-organic matter complexes are also prevalent in the marine environment. Organically bound uranium was found to make up to 20% of the dissolved U concentration in the open ocean." ° Uranium may also be enriched in estuarine colloids and in suspended organic matter within the surface ocean. " Scott" and Maeda and Windom" have suggested the possibility that humic acids can efficiently scavenge uranium in low salinity regions of some estuaries. Finally, sedimentary organic matter can also efficiently complex or adsorb uranium and other radionuclides. 

Most petroleum scientists believe that crude oil and natural gas formed over millions to tens of millions of years through the decomposition of organic matter buried by sediments. Generally, marine sediments have led to oil and gas, while freshwater... 

British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin once said that "The Kingdom of Heaven runs on righteousness, but the Kingdom of Earth tuns on alkanes." Well, actually he said "tuns on oil" not "runs on alkanes," but they re essentially the same. By far, the major sources of alkanes are the world s natural gas and petroleum deposits. Laid down eons ago, these deposits are thought to be derived from the decomposition of plant and animal matter, primarily of marine origin. Natural gas consists chiefly of methane but also contains ethane, propane, and butane. Petroleum is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons that must be separated into fractions and then further refined before it can be used. 

A second source of plutonium, dispersed more locally, is liquid effluent from fuel reprocessing facilities. One such is the fuel reprocessing plant at Windscale, Cumbria in the United Kingdom where liquid waste is released to the Irish Sea(6). Chemical analysis of this effluent shows that about one percent or less of the plutonium is in an oxidized form before it contacts the marine water(7). Approximately 95 percent of the plutonium rapidly adsorbs to particulate matter after discharge and deposits on the seabed while 5 percent is removed from the area as a soluble component ). Because this source provided concentrations that were readily detected, pioneering field research into plutonium oxidation states in the marine environment was conducted at this location. 

Consequences of Ozone Depletion. Ozone depletion over Antarctica is causing renewed concern about the consequences of increased levels of UV reaching the earth s biosphere. One area of concern involves the free-floating microscopic plants, known collectively as phytoplankton (the grass of the sea), which through the process of photosynthesis, fix carbon dioxide into living organic matter. Phytoplankton forms the basis of the marine food chain on which zooplankton (animal plankton) and all other components of the ecosystem depend for their sustenance. 

The failure to identify the necessary authigenic silicate phases in sufficient quantities in marine sediments has led oceanographers to consider different approaches. The current models for seawater composition emphasize the dominant role played by the balance between the various inputs and outputs from the ocean. Mass balance calculations have become more important than solubility relationships in explaining oceanic chemistry. The difference between the equilibrium and mass balance points of view is not just a matter of mathematical and chemical formalism. In the equilibrium case, one would expect a very constant composition of the ocean and its sediments over geological time. In the other case, historical variations in the rates of input and removal should be reflected by changes in ocean composition and may be preserved in the sedimentary record. Models that emphasize the role of kinetic and material balance considerations are called kinetic models of seawater. This reasoning was pulled together by Broecker (1971) in a paper called "A kinetic model for the chemical composition of sea water."... 

Hedges, J. and Keil, R. (1995). Sedimentary organic matter preservation an assessment and speculative synthesis, Marine Chem. 49, 81-115. 

All organic chemicals are, by definition, based on chemicals derived from living matter. Thus, the ten highest-volume commercial organic chemicals are all made from starting materials obtained from petroleum (oil) and natural gas, which are believed to have been formed by the microbial decomposition of ancient marine plants and animals. 

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