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The Correlation Between Agro Industrialization And Land Use Changes

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Dr. Roark’s talk, Deep-Sea Coral Perspectives on Ocean Circulation and Mississippi River Drainage Basin Changes, discusses the correlation between agro-industrialization and land-use changes and how these factors influence ocean biogeochemical cycles. He uses multiple elements, but mainly radiocarbon and Rhenium accumulation in deep-sea black corals to determine ocean circulation. The black corals retain these elements because the feeding matter they take in is exported organic matter from the surface ocean. He ends his lecture by suggesting future studies such as recovery rates of deep-sea corals after the impacts of fishing.
Radiocarbons are created in the atmosphere by high energy cosmic rays that are constantly bombarding the …show more content…

Rivers then transported soluble ReO4 into the ocean. Algae uptake the Re and upon death the algae sinks to the bottom where the Re is taken in by the black corals. The half life can then be used to determine ocean circulation much like the radiocarbons.
The lecture given by Dr. Roark has tied together multiple topics that we’ve discussed in class this semester. The biggest correlation I made from his lecture was the introduction of Re into the ocean from the Mississippi River. Rivers are one of the biggest sources of detritus and they bring in a lot of nutrients from decaying organic materials that enter the river. Dr. Roark said he was surprised to see Re in the coral samples, but it makes since if coal mines were located close to the banks of rivers. Much like the corals that are taking in this rare transition metal, organisms such as oysters can also be taking in elements such as radiocarbons and Re. Pollution in the ocean is a huge problem and it has occurred in many topics we’ve discussed.
Dr. Roark mentioned POM’s (pieces of organic material) several times and how these elements are being taken in by organisms at the bottom of the food chain. This relates to the diagram of Mr. Cat that we discussed in class and how a 10 pound cat would have to eat 100 pounds of tuna and the tuna would have to eat 1,000 pounds of mackerel and so on. Much like the example with DDT, these toxic elements are being introduced to

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