Throughout history, the ocean has played an integral role in shaping the identity of Atlantic Canadians. It was the mainstay of the first people on this land, the natives; it brought the first Viking explorers, as well as later adventurers, to our shores; it lured the first Western European settlers here with its rich bounty of fish. Even today, the people of this region use the ocean as a source of transportation, recreation, employment, and food; not to mention as a source of inspiration for our songs, stories, poems, paintings and carvings. If you go to any fishing village along our coastline you will see, hear and taste the impact this rich resource has on our lives. No other force has shaped this region's culture and people as much as the ocean.Marine Chemistry
Seawater is made up of approximately 96.5% water, 3.5% sea salts, some dissolved organic matter, other sediments, dissolved gases, and trace metals. Any changes to the amount of these substances, even just a minute amount, can have great consequences for marine organisms. For instance, dissolved salts affect osmotic pressure. The greater the amount of salt, the greater the amount of energy marine organisms need to use to stop water from flowing out of their bodies. Another example is related to the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide in the water. This dissolved gas causes seawater to be slightly alkaline, at a pH of 8.1. Organisms are adapted to this pH, and even slight changes can affect them.
Changes in the amounts of natural substances and the addition synthetic chemicals are altering the chemistry of seawater. Chemical oceanographers study the sources, the movement and the fate of natural and artificial chemicals in the ocean, as well as the general chemical composition of seawater. This data can then be used to determine the impact of these substances on marine life and the environment.
In the series of photographs below, researchers are conducting experiments to determine how deeply the oil descends through the sand on a beach. This will help them determine the impact of a spill on the organisms that live in the sand.
The Batfish is a case designed at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography to hold a variety of sampling equipment. Marine chemists first equipped this case with sensors to measure the salinity, temperature and depth as it is towed through the water. Currently it can be used to measure the amount of light, dissolved oxygen, suspended particles and chlorophyll.
Another area of exciting oceanographic research that occurs in Atlantic Canada is in the area of global climate change. Researchers here are actively participating in The Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), which examines changes in the amount of carbon dioxide in the ocean. Since the ocean contains about fifty times as much of this gas as the air does, any small changes in the ocean’s carbon cycle can have profound effects on the atmosphere’s carbon cycle. These effects may be important when considering a worldwide strategy for dealing with the Greenhouse Effect.