I am broadly interested in coastal physical processes and specifically at the processes that drive transport towards and away from the coast. Transport through estuaries and across continental shelves allows the exchange of heat, nutrients, larvae, sediment, and pollutants between coastal ecosystems and the open ocean. I am motivated to address questions raised by applied transport problems and I choose to research coastal phenomena in part because the scales of coastal and shelf processes – times of seconds to days and distances of meters to tens of kilometers – are tangible, human scales. More importantly, coastal and shelf processes are immediately applicable to solving human and environmental problems.
Turbulence and Tidal Energy
The Bay of Fundy is home to some of the world's largest tides, and offers great potential as a tidal energy resource. I'm developing measurement techniques to better understand and predict turbulent fluctuations in very fast tidal flows. CO2 Variation in Coastal Waters
Measurements of CO2 from the mouth of the Bay of Fundy are used to quantify the variability on short and long time scales, setting a base line for what is "normal" now. The results will aid in predicting what conditions local fisheries, shellfisheries, and aquaculture might experience in the future, and also helps us understand how the Bay of Fundy connects to the larger Gulf of Maine and Northwest Atlantic carbon system. Long Island Sound
As a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Connecticut, I used observations and a numerical model to understand the circulation in Long Island Sound for water quality and sediment transport applications.
Inner Shelf Circulation
Cross-shelf wind stresses drive circulation across the inner shelf. My thesis work in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program described the effect of horizontal and vertical density gradients on the efficiency of wind-driven transport.
Sediment resuspension
On the inner shelf, sediment is mainly resuspended by wave- and tidally- induced stresses on the bed. Once sediment is mixed up out of the bottom boundary layer, however, it is transported by the wind-driven circulation. Stratification suppresses mixing in the middle of the water column and alters the wind-driven circulation and therefore influences the magnitude and direction of sediment transport. Read more about this part of my thesis work in this Oceanus article.
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