The global oceans are a repository of radionuclides, both naturally occurring and anthropogenic (discharges from nuclear reprocessing plants, releases during nuclear weapon tests and accidents). Radionuclides in the marine environment can be used as tracers to understand ocean dynamics and processes, with applications depending on origin, physical and geochemical properties, half-lives, etc. Radionuclides with a conservative behavior in seawater can be applied to track the movement of water masses both at surface and abyssal layers and to unravel pathways, mixing regimes and transit times or ventilation rates. Combinations of radionuclides with different half-lives and geochemical properties can be used to estimate past ocean dynamics and rates of particulate carbon export to the deep ocean and submarine groundwater discharges to the sea. However, a comprehensive application of radionuclides as tracers in ocean science is sometimes still limited by instrument sensitivity and complex and laborious analytical procedures. Advancements in analytical techniques such as Accelerator Mass Spectrometry and Atom Trap Trace Analysis are key for the future development of new tracers in the oceans.
Recent developments in analytical and measuring techniques (e.g. mass spectrometry, quantum technology) allow the determination of radionuclide concentrations in seawater samples at ultra-low levels and have fostered novel radiotracers complementing well-established ones. In this way, the use of radionuclides in oceanographic research will continue to broaden.
This Research Topic aims to demonstrate how physical oceanographers and marine biogeochemists are currently moving beyond the state-of-the-art in the use of radiotracers to gain knowledge in ocean dynamics and processes.
This Research Topic will include:
• recent developments in provision of large open-access datasets of radionuclides in the ocean supporting radiotracer applications
• new findings in ocean processes derived from radiotracer field studies, e.g., submarine groundwater discharge, particle cycling and fluxes, water circulation, sedimentation processes, paleoceanography
• development of novel and emerging radiotracers for oceanographic studies related to cutting-edge measuring techniques
The global oceans are a repository of radionuclides, both naturally occurring and anthropogenic (discharges from nuclear reprocessing plants, releases during nuclear weapon tests and accidents). Radionuclides in the marine environment can be used as tracers to understand ocean dynamics and processes, with applications depending on origin, physical and geochemical properties, half-lives, etc. Radionuclides with a conservative behavior in seawater can be applied to track the movement of water masses both at surface and abyssal layers and to unravel pathways, mixing regimes and transit times or ventilation rates. Combinations of radionuclides with different half-lives and geochemical properties can be used to estimate past ocean dynamics and rates of particulate carbon export to the deep ocean and submarine groundwater discharges to the sea. However, a comprehensive application of radionuclides as tracers in ocean science is sometimes still limited by instrument sensitivity and complex and laborious analytical procedures. Advancements in analytical techniques such as Accelerator Mass Spectrometry and Atom Trap Trace Analysis are key for the future development of new tracers in the oceans.
Recent developments in analytical and measuring techniques (e.g. mass spectrometry, quantum technology) allow the determination of radionuclide concentrations in seawater samples at ultra-low levels and have fostered novel radiotracers complementing well-established ones. In this way, the use of radionuclides in oceanographic research will continue to broaden.
This Research Topic aims to demonstrate how physical oceanographers and marine biogeochemists are currently moving beyond the state-of-the-art in the use of radiotracers to gain knowledge in ocean dynamics and processes.
This Research Topic will include:
• recent developments in provision of large open-access datasets of radionuclides in the ocean supporting radiotracer applications
• new findings in ocean processes derived from radiotracer field studies, e.g., submarine groundwater discharge, particle cycling and fluxes, water circulation, sedimentation processes, paleoceanography
• development of novel and emerging radiotracers for oceanographic studies related to cutting-edge measuring techniques
