Dr. Grand regularly teaches the following core and advanced graduate level courses at MLML. Most of these courses include significant field and lab components and hands-on learning. Some courses require a Teaching Assistant (TA), and Chemical Oceanography lab members usually fulfill this role. In addition to supervising all chemical oceanography lab students, Dr. Grand advises several students from other labs since MLML MS theses often encompass a chemical oceanography and/or analytical chemistry component. 

MS143. Chemical Oceanography (Core Course)

Chemical Oceanography is the study of chemical distributions in the ocean including the biological, chemical, geological and physical processes that control chemical concentrations and cycling. The course starts with an overview of the properties of water, a description of the chemical composition of seawater including a review of thermodynamics and chemical equilibrium. The distribution and speciation of nutrients (N, P, Si), dissolved gases, carbonate parameters and trace elements (including isotopes and tracers) in the world ocean will then be described including how some chemical tracers can be used to investigate oceanographic processes and how others influence marine biological productivity, global carbon cycling and the planet’s climate. 

The course encompasses a significant field and laboratory component. The field activities will include a quasi-synoptic survey of nutrient distributions in Elkhorn Slough, the Old Salinas River and Monterey Bay and a one-day cruise aboard the RV Martin to experience offshore chemical sampling. Laboratory work will focus on the analysis of discrete samples for nutrients (N, P, Si), dissolved oxygen, pH and alkalinity in the slough and Monterey Bay using standard techniques.

MS285. Graduate Seminar. Marine Pollution: Science, Policy and Public Perspective

The oceans are the ultimate repository for a plethora of substances released deliberately or accidentally as a result of human activities. This graduate seminar will provide students with an overview of marine pollution issues including: nutrients and eutrophication, microplastics, ocean acidification, heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, deep sea mining, radioactivity and light pollution. Remediation options and regulatory policy will also be discussed for selected contaminants. Considering that the pollution of rivers, lakes and coastal waters ranks consistently among the top 10 concerns of American citizens since 2016, the course will also explore the general public perception of marine pollution. Each class session will consist of in-depth, student-led discussions of peer-reviewed literature and public media articles and occasional mini-lectures to provide students with the theoretical background necessary to critically review and foster lively class discussions of science papers. Invited guest lectures followed by informal Q&A sessions will also be scheduled throughout the semester. 

MS274. Advanced Topics. Analytical Chemical Oceanography and Chemometrics

Chemical Oceanography is intimately tied to analytical chemistry. From an analytical standpoint, seawater is a challenging mixture to work with because many of the analytes of interest are present at concentrations that are several orders of magnitude lower than that of the major ion constituents. In addition, extracting climate relevant biogeochemical data requires the use of highly sophisticated methods and careful consideration of the accuracy, precision and limitations of a given technique. The latter aspects will be the focus of this course. While most of us have received basic training in elementary statistical methods, the fact remains that many competent analytical chemists have the tendency to neglect rigorous statistical treatment in their quest for the most sensitive and selective techniques. This course aims to provide students with foundational statistical methods of relevance to analytical chemistry so students can design their experiments properly and extract as much information from their results as they legitimately can. Throughout the semester, students will apply rigorous statistical practice as they collectively develop a new method for the analysis of a chemical of interest  in seawater.  

MS253. Marine Pollution

The world’s oceans are the ultimate repository for a plethora of substances released deliberately or accidentally as a result of human activities. This course will outline fundamental concepts in aquatic chemistry and will examine the sources, distributions, transport pathways, behavior, fate and impact of various chemical contaminants in estuaries and coastal waters including: nutrients, metals, persistent organic compounds, hydrocarbons, radioactive substances, microplastics and carbon dioxide. Class time will include lectures, practical group tasks and discussion of selected case studies as viewed from the scientific literature and public media. This course features an intensive field and laboratory component during which students will characterize the efficacy of various nutrient removal practices implemented in the lower Salinas valley, the abundance of microplastics in surficial sediments of Moss Landing Harbor and an in-depth analysis of the distributions of dissolved and particulate trace metals in Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing Harbor. The latter project will form the basis of student’s final projects to be submitted in the form of a scientific research paper at the end of the semester.  Students will receive training in state-of-the-art analytical techniques and trace metal clean field sampling practices throughout the semester. 

MS251. Marine Geochemistry

This course aims to provide graduate students with an advanced understanding of fundamental marine (bio)geochemical processes occurring in coastal/shelf regions, at the air-sea interface, within the water column and at the sea floor, which collectively interact to control the chemical composition of the oceans and the export of carbon to the deep sea. Each theme covered in class will be preceded by a review of fundamental aquatic chemistry concepts including thermodynamics, kinetics, complexation, acid-base and oxidation-reduction reactions, adsorption processes and the precipitation and dissolution of solid phases. The first part of the course will consider input pathways of dissolved and particulate material to the ocean including weathering, atmospheric deposition and hydrothermal processes. The second part of the course will focus on dissolved/particulate interactions and the burial of particulate material in marine sediments and ensuing diagenetic processes. The last part of the course will provide an overview of marine organic geochemistry and an in-depth analysis of the silicon and phosphorus cycle.