Oceans living organisms

The oceans contain vast quantities of ionic calcium,, to the extent of 400 mg/L of seawater (3). Calcium is present ia living organisms as a constituent of bones, teeth, shell, and coral. It is essential to plant as well as animal life. 

Fluxes are linear functions of reservoir contents. Reservoir size and the residence time of the carbon in the reservoir are the parameters used in the functions. Between the ocean and the atmosphere and within the ocean, fluxes rates are calculated theoretically using size of the reservoir, surface area of contact between reservoirs, concentration of CO2, partial pressures of CO2, temperature, and solubility as factors. The flux of carbon into the vegetation reservoir is a function of the size of the carbon pool and a fertilization effect of increased CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Flux from vegetation into the atmosphere is a function of respiration rates estimated by Whittaker and Likens (79) and the decomposition of short-lived organic matter which was assumed to be half of the gross assimilation or equal to the amount transferred to dead organic matter. Carbon in organic matter that decomposes slowly is transferred... 

Carbon in living organic matter in the ocean surface layer. 

Biogeochemical cycle. As discussed early in the chapter, this term describes the global or regional cycles of the "life elements" C, N, S, and P with reservoirs including the whole or part of the atmosphere, the ocean, the sediments, and the living organisms. The term can be applied to the corresponding cycles of other elements or compounds. 

The oceanic biota reservoir (4) is also within the surface layers. Although organisms reside at all depths within the ocean, the overwhelming majority reside within the photic zone where phytoplankton dominate. The oceanic biota reservoir only contains roughly 1 /30 as much P as the land biota reservoir. This is primarily because oceanic biomass is composed of relatively short-lived organisms, while land biomass is dominated by massive long-lived forests. 

The transfer of P from land to terrestrial biota (F23) represents the sum of terrestrial biological productivity. There is no significant gaseous form of P, nor is there a major transfer of living organisms between the freshwater-terrestrial system and the oceans. The terrestrial biota system is, therefore, essentially a closed system where the flux of P to the biota (p23) is balanced by the return of P to the land from the biota (F32) due to the decay of dead organic materials. 

Water lies at the very heart of life. Oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, intertidal pools, and puddles provide the enviromnent for an abundance of living organisms. Those of us who reside on land are composed largely of water and are utterly dependent on water for life. Some species can do without water longer than others but, sooner or later, we all need it. 

In the course of the carbon cycle, carbon moves from the atmosphere, where it mostly exists in the form of carbon dioxide, into biological molecules—the molecules that make up living things and the wastes and remains. The incorporation of atmospheric carbon into living organisms begins with the process of photosynthesis. Some atmospheric carbon dioxide is also removed from the atmosphere when it dissolves in the cold ocean waters at the north and south poles. 

The molecules and ions contained within a living organism differ in kind and in concentration from those in the organism s surroundings. A Paramecium in a pond, a shark in the ocean, an erythrocyte in the human bloodstream, an apple tree in an orchard—all are different in composition from their surroundings and, once they have reached maturity, all (to a first approximation) maintain a constant composition in the face of constantly changing surroundings. 

---