Thermohaline interleaving is an important mechanism for laterally fluxing salt, heat, and nutrients between oceanic water masses. Interleaving is driven by a release of potential energy resulting from the vastly differing diffusivities of heat and salt in seawater. The flows are composed of stacked intrusions that flux more buoyant and...
The longshore variability of the coastal response to hurricanes may be examined within the framework of a storm-impact scaling model that compares spatially-variable beach morphology and fluid forcing. The relative elevations of dune height and storm-induced water levels are used to define three impact regimes (swash, collision, and overwash), within...
An empirical statistical model is developed that relates the non-tidal motion of the ocean surface currents off the Oregon coast to forecasts of the coastal winds. The empirical statistical model is then used to produce predictions of the surface currents that are evaluated for their agreement with measured currents. Measurements...
The effects of alongshore variability in topography (banks and capes) and spatial variability in the wind forcing, including the wind-stress curl, on coastal ocean circulation are studied using a combination of observations and model simulations. Satellite sea surface temperature observations are used to describe the seasonal evolution of temperature fronts...
The microbial loop plays a crucial role in remineralization of organic matter and fuels recycled production in the aquatic environment. The capability of microbes to utilize particular compounds can be examined through their ectoenzyme (found outside the cell) activities using fluorogenic substrate analogs. These catalysts hydrolyze polymers otherwise too large...
The North Pacific subtropical gyre (NPSG), once considered to be a biological desert due to low primary production (PP) and its associated variability, has been found more productive and variable than previously thought. The environmental conditions controlling this relatively high PP variability are yet to be elucidated, despite important implications...
Large barite (BaSO4) structures mark cold seeps in the southern San Clemente Basin. Barium flux to San Clemente sediments is two to three times greater than fluxes measured in surrounding California Borderland basins. Analyses of sediment trap material, water column samples, sediments and pore water indicate that expected bariumbearing mineral...
Marine sediments exceptionally rich in organic carbon, known as black shales, occur globally but intermittently in well correlated Cretaceous successions. The presence of black shales indicates that sporadic, ocean-wide interruption of normal respiration of marine organic matter during oxygen-deficient conditions has occurred. Submarine volcanism on a massive scale, related to...
Tropical instability waves (TIWs) are prominent seasonal features in both the equatorial Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. This work quantifies their role in modulating the distributions of nutrients and phytoplankton biomass. Using an eight year record of biannual ship observations along the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) buoy array, cruise sections crossing...
Modern upwelling conditions and corresponding oceanographic properties are investigated and reconstructed for the Late Quaternary. The oceanographic conditions considered influence diatom ecology and the record of fossil diatom frustules in the sediments.
Diatoms from modern sediments are evaluated as paleoceanographic proxies and transfer functions (TFs) are calibrated using the Imbrie...