I study how small scale processes (eg. turbulence) impact the transport of heat and energy throughout the water column and set larger scale distributions of temperature and salinity. I am interested in how the distribution of physical characteristics and dynamics impact the organisms that live in the ocean, communities and larger scale climate.

I have primarily used observational data from ships and instruments deployed in the ocean for months at a time to understand the timescales and spatial distribution of physical processes. I am also passionate about utilizing historical/archived data to understand the changes in the physical environment over varying time and space scales.

I work with several different people including Jonathan Nash and Erin Pettit at Oregon State University and Peter Kirchner at the National Park Service in Alaska.

Projects

  • I show that turbulent mixing rates can be computed from slow sampling instruments and use the resulting long duration time series to understand the interactions between currents and tides on deep turbulent mixing near a steep underwater ridge, north of Palau.

  • I analyzed and described hydrographic trends in inner fjords across the Gulf of Alaska using a synthesized dataset from historic and previously collected data. We describe the temporal and spatial distribution of data across this region and evaluate the influence that sills have on the temperature and salinity distribution in fjords.