Project Page Views: [ 818 ]
Project Metadata Element | Details |
Project Title | Cullen Fellowship - Ocean Climate |
Research Area | EPA Climate Pillar: Climate change impacts and adaptation |
Project Acronym | |
Principal Investigator or Lead Irish Partner | Martin White |
Lead Institution or Organisation | National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) |
Lead Country | Ireland |
Latitude, Longitude (of Lead Institution) | 53.27984962756169,-9.060439825107096 |
Lead Funding Entity | Marine Institute |
Approximate Project Start Date | 01/04/2015 |
Approximate Project Finishing Date | 31/03/2019 |
Project Website (if any) | |
Links to other Web-based resources | |
Project Keywords | Oceanography, oceanographic data sets, coastal currents, shelf edge current dynamics, continental margin, Ocean climate |
Project Abstract | The proposed PhD research aims to assess the inter-annual variability of hydrographic conditions in Irish waters with an emphasis on deep ocean-shelf ocean linkages with an emphasis on a common continental margin feature; the NE Atlantic slope current. Deep ocean data, principally ARGO, will be used to assess changes in distribution of intermediate water masses and the influence they have on winter mixed layer depth and the resultant water mass characteristics transported along the margin. Satellite derived sea surface height data will be analysed to the continuity and variability of the slope current with basin scale forcing as described by the N Atlantic wind stress. Inter-annual changes in seasonally generated shelf sea stratification and density frontal structures will be quantified in terms of the influence of slope current transport along and across the continental margin relative to variation in the local heat and freshwater fluxes. Results will be synthesised and assessed in the context of interpretation of measured changes in the regional ecosystems and biogeochemical processes, for example fisheries and generation of HABs |