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Abstract

Material cycling in the ocean is a dynamic system that spans vast spatial and temporal scales and is tightly coupled with physical processes, involving interactions among fluid motion, geochemical reactions, and biochemical activities. In this lecture, I will use accessible language to explain how materials are transported, transformed, and redistributed in the ocean, as well as the broader significance of these processes within the Earth system. The talk will be organized into three parts. The first part will introduce the fundamental concepts of how biologically relevant materials cycle in the ocean. The second part will highlight the distinctive features and importance of marine biogeochemistry through several representative elements (Fe, Ni, Cd, Zn, Pb, etc.), illustrating how these elements interact with physical, chemical, and biological processes in the ocean. The final part will integrate the foundational concepts and discussions of elemental cycling presented earlier to explain how the oceanographic community is currently leveraging ocean processes to achieve the uptake and sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (blue carbon). I will also take this opportunity to introduce the key characteristics of the marine environment surrounding Taiwan.