The field of chemical oceanography has evolved over the past several decades from one of discovery to an interdisciplinary science that uses chemical distributions to understand physical, biological, geological and chemical processes in the sea. The study of chemical oceanography includes much of the background required to understand the global carbon cycle on all time scales because of the primary role of the marine carbonate system. Thus, we present this book about Chemical Oceanography and the Marine Carbon Cycle as a natural outgrowth of the evolution of our scientific field and a necessary background for building intuition to manage the anthropogenic intrusion into the global carbon cycle.

After a long deliberation about whether we had the time, stamina and personalities to write a book about our subject, John Hedges and I decided to do it, using as a guide, the notes we had compiled from teaching Chemical Oceanography together in the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington. During the first three years of the new century we used sabbatical leaves and time borrowed from teaching and research to compile about half of the book. Then, in 2003 John died suddenly and unexpectedly. Everyone John touched was thrown into a state of shock at the loss of a good friend, reliable colleague and brilliant organic geochemist. At this point we had put so much of ourselves into this undertaking that I felt there was no turning back, and I continued to complete what you see here.