COAS chemical oceanographers study the chemistry of the oceans and other aquatic environments as integral components of the Earth system. In doing this, we focus on a wide range of processes and interactions with the biota (plants, animals, microorganisms), the earth's crust (seafloor and continents), and the atmosphere. We examine the composition and distribution of chemicals in the oceans, lakes, and rivers in order to decipher the natural controls and the man-made changes affecting these environments. Wise use of natural resources requires an understanding of the impacts of their utilization.

Society is vulnerable to environmental change, and our faculty and students strive to refine our ability to understand and predict such changes. These can occur over times ranging from minutes, to decades, to millions of years. We extend our study of these modern processes into the geologic past as a tool for understanding the future.

Because chemistry both controls and reflects the environment of the ocean-earth-atmosphere system, chemical oceanography spans all the other disciplines of of this College. We share common goals and conduct research with other scientists in ocean physics and biology as well as atmospheric, geologic and other hydrologic sciences.

The present research activities of the Chemical Oceanography faculty include studies of the distribution and flux of inorganic and organic materials in today's ocean and in oceans of the geological past, studies of nutrient controls on global marine productivity, studies of the chemistry of freshwater and seawater hydrothermal vent systems, and studies of chemical reactions and other processes at air-sea and sediment-seawater interfaces. Please go to individual's pages for more details about current research activities.

Chemical Oceanography students at OSU have access to a wide variety of research environments ranging from alpine lakes in the nearby Cascade mountains, to estuaries of the Pacific Northwest, to margin cold seeps and ridgecrest hydrothermal systems located conveniently off the coast of Oregon. The OSU research vessel, Wecoma, affords many opportunities for coastal and deep-water work throughout the Pacific Ocean.