Interfacial Processes

Abstract

As we have gone beyond the traditional oceanographic routines in our field studies of the characterization of sea water, we have seen that an important fraction of marine particulate matter is in the size range of only a few nanometers to hundreds of micrometers. These particles are fluid and flexible, non-living, and primarily organic. The abundance of the nonliving particles greatly exceeds the abundance of living microorganisms, algae and bacteria, and viruses. Their total interfacial area in the water column surpasses by a few orders of magnitude the area of the sea surface. The structures and systems they form in sea water stand apart from the conventional colloidal system of solid particles and are described in terms of complex fluids. The mechanism of their formation, their stability, and the role they play in ocean biogeochemical cycles is becoming a most challenging exercise in converging disciplines of marine chemistry, microbiology, and biophysics.