Chemical Reference Materials for Oceanography : History, Production, and Certification

This open access book explores the history, production, and certification of reference materials for essential parameters in oceanography and provides a comprehensive understanding of them to readers. Because inorganic macro-nutrients, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and carbonate system parameters, including dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, and pH, are essential parameters in oceanography, they can be used to define biogeographic provinces, monitor ocean health, and detect decadal-scale oceanic climate changes. Without reference materials for these parameters, it would be difficult to produce reliable data sets or long-term baseline studies that are required to verify global change and oceanic stability.

The book includes chapters on developing new reference materials for density, dissolved oxygen, dissolved organic carbon, dissolved organic matter, and trace metals, which are also important in oceanographic studies. The lead authors of each chapter regarding these parameters are top scientists in these areas; hence, this is the most comprehensive book of chemical reference materials for ocean science, written by experts in each field. The book is a useful resource for readers to find the latest information and status of certified reference materials (CRM) and reference materials (RM) and of ways to use CRM in their studies.

We are in the middle of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030), to which this book makes a timely contribution.

Prof. Michio Aoyama received his Ph.D. from Kanazawa University in 1999. He is currently a visiting professor at the Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences of the University of Tsukuba and at the Institute of Environmental Radioactivity of Fukushima University. He is also a senior scientist at the Research Institute of Global Change of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology in Yokosuka, Japan.

He is an internationally recognized expert with 46 years of experience in hydrography and in the development of established standard materials and quality assurance of salinity and nutrients in seawater. He is also an internationally recognized expert with 38 years of experience in assessment and evaluation of anthropogenic radionuclides in the environment (atmosphere and oceans) and in the development of analytical methods in radioactivity.

Dr. Chikako Cheong received her Ph.D. in environmental studies from the University of Tsukuba in 2020, and she is currently a senior researcher at the National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ) and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).

She is a metrologist who has been involved in the development of analytical methods for seawater nutrients and verification of their accuracy for 15 years since she assumed her current post. At the National Metrology Institute, she has developed nutrient-certification reference materials for seawater composition in accordance with ISO 17034. She has also been involved in the development and continuous maintenance of Japanese national primary standard solutions for elements and inorganic ions, including nutrient ions such as nitrate and phosphate, among others. Using her expertise in the development of certified reference materials, she has been working to introduce the International System of Units (SI) in traceability in oceanographic observations and to ensure their international comparability.

Dr. Akihiko Murata received his Ph.D. from the University of Tsukuba in 1999. Currently, he is a senior principal investigator at the Physical and Chemical Oceanography Research Group, Global Ocean Observation Research Center (GOORC), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology Center (JASMTEC).

He has been working on shipboard observations to detect decadal-scale increases of CO2 dissolved in the ocean interior and to assess how much anthropogenic CO2 emitted into the atmosphere is taken up by the ocean. Over the last decade, he has served as a chief scientist of some research cruises of the Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigation (GO-SHIP) conducted aboard the R/V Mirai of JAMSTEC. In these cruises, he took charge of high-qualitymeasurements of carbonate system properties, including dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, pH, and pCO2. He conducts the measurements of the CO2-system properties mostly aboard the R/V Mirai in the world’s oceans to survey the progression of ocean acidification.