The Oceans: A Deep History

Rohling, a professor of ocean and climate change at the Australian National University’s Research School of Earth Sciences and the University of Southampton’s National Oceanography Centre, exhaustively recounts the history of Earth’s open waters in this dense volume. The paleoceanographer studies “ancient oceans and their changes through geologic time,” as well as the “natural, underlying rhythms and processes of ocean and climate change.” In largely academic language, Rohling chronicles both physical and chemical transformations in Earth’s oceans. His detailed discussion would suit classrooms well, but general readers may find his presentation stiff and the technical vocabulary unwieldy. Rohling begins with sections on the formation of oceans on planet Earth approximately four billion years ago, noting how their shapes continue to shift because the continents continue to move. But as Rohling progresses into passages on oxygenic photosynthesis, chemosynthesis, and planktonic calcifiers, as well as “predatory reptiles such as mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, pliosaurs, and plesiosaurs,” the material proves significantly more difficult to digest. Though Rohling eventually talks about familiar topics such as carbon emissions, rising sea levels, and ocean acidification, he does not sufficiently address ways in which further damage to the environment could be prevented. Rohling’s work is extensive and informative, but is geared toward readers with advanced knowledge of the subject. (Dec.)