Biogeochemistry: A introduction

Abstract

The concept of biogeochemistry is about one hundred years old. It was first defined by the Russian scientist Vernadsky in 1926. At the beginning of the twentieth century, scientific disciplines divided themselves into many subdisciplines: specialization was the credo. Completely new at that time was the biosphere concept of Vernadsky that contrary to the specialization trend integrated disciplines such as geology, chemistry, and biology. Nowadays, this integrated discipline is called biogeochemistry. In time, the field of biogeochemistry gained more and more attention, especially because the footprint of man on his own environment is increasing and integrated information and knowledge is necessary to understand man’s impact. In the last 20 years, many handbooks on biogeochemistry have been written and even four international journals appeared covering biogeochemical aspects. An enormous explosion has been observed in the amount of scientific papers containing the keyword biogeochemistry. This implies that it is now time for an overview and concise synthesis. The goal of the present volume is to provide a state-of-the-art overview of estuarine and coastal biogeochemistry. The biogeochemical cycles are covered per element (carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and oxygen) and also in an integrated way by coupling cycling in sediments and at the land–ocean interface scale.