Interdisciplinary Physics: Research Topics in Studying Man's Environment

Abstract

The interdisciplinary study of the environment using tracer elements is here described for three examples: The climate of the past, the gas exchange between atmosphere and ocean and the natural carbon cycle. In the first, the isotope ratios of hydrogen and of oxygen in ocean sediments, groundwater, polar ice and in tree rings was found to give much useful information. In the study of gas exchange which is controlled by a thin molecular diffusion boundary layer on the liquid side of the interface it was found that the exchange is more strongly influenced by the presence of surface waves than had been expected. To increase the understanding of the natural carbon cycle, radon-222 was used as an auxiliary tracer. With this nuclide as a reference, the diurnal and seasonal variations of the CO₂ concentration at a mountain research station were analysed, and the source or sink fluxes causing these variations were calculated.