The papers gathered in this authoritative volume, partly based on presentations by 60 scientists attending a NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Past and Present Water Column Anoxia in Sevastopol, Ukraine, address the entire range of oxygen-deficient conditions and reflect the complexity of the issues governing the formation and persistence of oxygen-deficient and anoxic conditions in the world's ocean throughout history. An additional special feature of this book are review papers by the most respected specialists in their fields that aim to further discussion of the current state of, and future directions of, research on pelagic suboxic and anoxic environments. Key features of the work include: * Exceptional geographic coverage, describing interdisciplinary research in almost all significant pelagic environments of the world ocean with permanent or transient anoxic conditions * Processes controlling the redox budget in the Black Sea, the Cariaco Basin and other environments *Specific biogeochemical features of shelf anoxia * Detailed reviews on the current state of knowledge about the nitrogen cycle inclusing anaerobic ammonium oxidation and nitrogen fixation * Microbial ecology of the oxic/anoxic interface and anoxygenic photosynthesis * Techniques of reconstructing ancient sedimentary biogeochemistry and aquaticmicrobial communities through the use of new molecular biological techniquessuch as fossil DNA profiling combined with lipid biomarker studies