Measuring subsurface circulation in deep stratified marginal seas
department or school: Science, Faculty of
department or school: Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Stevens, Samuel William
issued: 2024-03-04T16:59:24Z
issued: 2024
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Coastal oceans are disproportionately important compared to their limited size. Semi-enclosed coastal areas, in particular, are geomorphologically diverse regions that often support high primary productivity and can offer rich sheltered habitats for large marine communities. Due to their enclosed nature, these areas are uniquely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and pollution as deep water masses can have long residence times, which can generate hypoxic conditions and cause an accumulation of long-lived contaminants, among other issues. Understanding the subsurface circulation of these areas is important to understanding and predicting the evolution of these conditions. However, the processes that drive circulation occur on time and space scales that span the entire coastal continuum, ranging from synoptic-scale processes at the ocean margin through to microscale processes in the interior basins. For this reason, semi-enclosed seas are often under-sampled relative to the multiple scales of variability that drive their circulation. Here, I present research on the subsurface circulation of two of North America's largest deep stratified marginal seas: the Salish Sea, with a particular focus on the Strait of Georgia; and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. These areas have diverse geographic features, yet share a number of oceanographic similarities, such as exhibiting rotationally-modified estuarine circulations. In these regions, I outline and quantify subsurface mixing dynamics, transit times, transit pathways, and advection speeds via observations, regional-scale model outputs, and simplified 1D models. One strong motivation for this research was to generate novel tools for oceanographers to study these regions and similar regions globally. I have approached this in a number of ways. For example, I make broad use of hydrographic data gathered via an extensive volunteer program in British Columbia, highlighting the utility and efficacy of citizen science as a scienti…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/87517
note: Measuring Subsurface Circulation in Deep Stratified Marginal SeasbySamuel William StevensB.Sc. Oceanography, The University of Southampton, 2013A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENTOF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OFDoctor of PhilosophyinTHE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES(Oceanography)The University of British Columbia(Vancouver)February 2024© Samuel William Stevens, 2024The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduateand Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled:Measuring Subsurface Circulation in Deep Stratified Marginal Seassubmitted by Samuel William Stevens in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree ofDoctor of Philosophy in OceanographyExamining Committee:Rich Pawlowicz, Professor, Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, UBCSupervisorSusan E. Allen, Professor, Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, UBCSupervisory Committee MemberRoger Franc¸ois, Professor, Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, UBCSupervisory Committee MemberRoger Beckie, Professor, Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, UBCUniversity ExaminerSteven Weijs, Associate Professor, Civil Engineering, UBCUniversity ExamineriiAbstractCoastal oceans are disproportionately important compared to their limited size. Semi-enclosedcoastal areas, in particular, are geomorphologically diverse regions that often support high primaryproductivity and can offer rich sheltered habitats for large marine communities. Due to their en-closed nature, these areas are uniquely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and pollutionas deep water masses can have long residence times, which can generate hypoxic conditions andcause an accumulation of long-lived contaminants, among other issues. Understanding the subsur-face circulation of these areas is important to understanding and predicting the evolution of theseconditions. However, the processes that drive circulation occur on time and space scales that spanthe entir…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2024-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0440614
language: eng
degree discipline: Oceanography
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Pawlowicz, Rich
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/87517