Guy Jacques - Oceans: Evolving Concepts

SCIENCES

Oceanography and Marine Ecology, Field Director Franois Lallier

Guy Jacques

Paul Trguer

Herl Mercier

First published 2020 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:

ISTE Ltd
27-37 St Georges Road
London SW19 4EU
UK

www.iste.co.uk

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030
USA

www.wiley.com

ISTE Ltd 2020

The rights of Guy Jacques, Paul Trguer and Herl Mercier to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020933345

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78945-003-3

ERC code:

PE10 Earth System Science

PE10_8 Oceanography (physical, chemical, biological, geological)

LS8 Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology

LS8_11 Marine biology and ecology

The authors would like to thank all those who, through review, advice, the donation of photographs, etc., have helped to produce this book, which we hope is also a tribute to a whole generation of researchers, engineers and technicians who, for half a century, have contributed to the emergence of the science of oceanography. We also would like to thank Delphine Binos, Claude Courties, Philippe Cury, Marta Estrada, Serge Garcia, Jean-Pierre Gattuso, Patrice Klein, Aline Fiala, Frank Lartaud, Odile Levrat, Marian Melin, Marc Picheral, Philippe Pondaven, Suzanne Razouls, Pascal Rivire, Bernard Salvat, Pierre-Marie Sarradin, Myriam Sibuet and Olivier Thbaud.

Published in the new Sciencesencyclopedia launched in 2020 by ISTE Ltd, this book aims to introduce readers to key themes in oceanography and marine ecology by focusing on how concepts are evolving. First, we briefly recall (see ).

While the Challengerexpedition marked the birth of oceanography, this discipline has experienced, since the 1960s, a real golden age on a global scale with the massive recruitment of researchers, the launch of dedicated vessels and underwater vehicles, the emergence of international programs, technical revolutions (bathythermograph, automatic nutrient salt analyzers, instrumented buoys, chromatography for pigment analysis, etc.), the satellite revolution concerning a growing number of parameters and an increasingly interdisciplinary approach. The time is therefore right to combine these advances.

The last three chapters of this book go beyond the traditional routes of oceanography works. First, they attempt, through an interdisciplinary approach, to anticipate the future of a warmer, more acidified and less oxygenated ocean in the context of climate change. This is due to anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, in particular carbon dioxide, more than a quarter of which is captured in the ocean, but at the cost of changing the chemical balance of carbonates (see ) three challenges the oceans face in the 21st Century:

• Can we exploit biological resources within the framework of sustainable development?
• Is the exploitation of its deep mining resources compatible with respect for the biodiversity of the seabed?
• Should the ocean be manipulated to better regulate climate change?

It is to Great Britains credit that the first major oceanographic expeditions were organized, thus confirming its undeniable supremacy over the oceans ( Rule, Britannia!).