Marine Organic Geochemistry
Organic matter in the ocean gets tracked here from the scale of whole ocean basins down to individual molecules. The course covers the composition of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in seawater and sediments, the budgets and fluxes that move organic matter through major ocean reservoirs, and the microbial pathways that recycle it before it ever reaches the seafloor. Students work through models of organic matter degradation and preservation, examine why anoxic conditions favor burial rather than breakdown, and compare dissolved versus particulate organic matter, both sinking and suspended. Laboratory methods for characterizing sedimentary organic matter get attention alongside biological markers, the molecular fossils oceanographers use to trace where organic material came from and what happened to it. Both structural chemistry and isotopic signatures are treated as evidence. Offered through MIT OpenCourseWare, the course provides lecture notes and readings for self-study at no cost, aimed at advanced students already comfortable with chemistry and earth science fundamentals.