Hydrodynamics of Semi-Enclosed Seas

An essential introduction to the study of estuaries, highlighting their immense spatial and temporal variability.

The Antarctic Sector of the Pacific covers the area between Australia and South America south of about 45°S. The region comprises about 6% of the Earth's surface and is amongst the most remote, hostile and least studied of the world's oceans. The scientific importance of the region is derived from its role in the reconstruction of Gondwanaland, its influence on Pacific climate and palaeoclimate and its biological productivity. No systematic surveys of the region have been undertaken since the work of the U.S.N.S. Eltanin (1962-1972). The comprehensive reassessment of whale stocks by the International Whaling Commission in 1990 and problems with ratification of the Antarctic Minerals Regime attest to the importance of Antarctic matters at present.The book will stimulate scientific activity in the region and serve as a handbook for future research. It should also appeal to oceanographers and Polar scientists.

The book shows how the new observations from satellites required advances in theory and influenced societal decision-making. Chapters have a review with an extensive reference list, making the book an excellent source of information for biological and physical oceanographers and atmospheric scientists.A large range of state-of-the art applications of satellite data (altimeter, color, infrared radiometer, scatterometer, synthetic aperture radar) visible in regional-to-global scale ocean studies integrating satellite and in-situ measurements with circulation models are covered in the book. Subjects include forecasting of surface waves, both swell and windsea, and surface wind; El Niño/La Niña; exchange of water masses between ocean basins, Rossby waves; eddies and filaments; fisheries; coastal ocean dynamics; phytoplankton dynamics; and ideas to measure sea surface salinity.

GOOS is an international programme for a permanent global framework of observations, modelling and analysis of ocean variables which are needed to support operational services around the world. The EuroGOOS strategy has two streams: the first is to improve the quality of marine information in European home waters, and the second is to collaborate with similar organisations in other continents to create a new global ocean observing and modelling system that will provide the open ocean forecasts needed to achieve the best possible performance by local marine information services everywhere. The EuroGOOS strategy envisages our national agencies making a major contribution to that challenging task of globalizing ocean forecasting. The conference also provided an opportunity to take stock of the state of marine science and technology in Europe relevant to the EuroGOOS strategy, and the state of information services and customer needs.

The Washington-Oregon coastal zone is a classical Eastern Boundary Current region. The area is extremely productive, the productivity dependent on near-shore infusions of nutrients into surface layers during wind-driven coastal upwelling. The Washington-Oregon coastline is much more regular than areas off California or off the East Coast, where large capes lend complexity to both the physical environment and the ecosystem response. The relatively straight coastline and broad, deep shelf greatly simplify the physical environment, so that processes responsible for much of the variance are more easily identified. The system response from mid-Oregon northward, although not strictly two-dimensional, is more so than many other coastal areas. Consequently, the system is amenable to the testing of relatively simple models integrating wind forcing with physical, chemical and biological responses in the upper water column.This book is an integrated synthesis of physical, chemical, geological and biological research in a dynamic shelf ecosystem characterized by seasonal, wind-driven upwelling, major river influences, extensive silt deposits, productive pelagic and demersal fisheries, and unique surf-zone communities. The broad scope of the book includes: detailed analyses of physical circulation and sediment transport; production and utilization of organic matter in the marine food web; river influences on regional hydrology and sediment deposition; inputs and inventories of anthropogenic chemicals in the water column and sedimentary deposits. Much of the book is based on primary analyses of previously unpublished data sets. Interdisciplinary approaches are emphasized in models and discussions of coastal upwelling dynamics, hydrographic patterns and anomalies, benthic boundary-layer processes and larval transport, oceanographic influences on commercial stocks, mechanics of chemical cycling and accumulation, and surf-zone production. An extensive index and references complete the book.The book is intended both to document and explain specific regional features of the Washington/Oregon shelf system and, more generally, to illustrate the complexities of interactive influences on the dynamics of coastal ecosystems. Oceanographers, both researchers and students, will be very interested in this book, and it can also be used by governmental agencies and industries dealing with coastal zone management and planning.

This volume contains the proceedings of the 19th International Liège Colloquium on Ocean Hydrodynamics, the programme of which focused on the relationships between small-scale mixing and large-scale features, transports and processes. The presentation of papers on various methods of parameterization of small-scale turbulent mixing for numerical ocean models was particularly encouraged and this resulted in more than a third of the papers presented at the Colloquium dealing in one way or another with the parameterization problems; many of these papers demonstrate the direct results of modelling. These proportions are well reflected in this volume of proceedings and thus emphasize once more the importance of small-scale turbulence research for such vital practical applications as ocean modelling and forecasting.