[PAST EVENT] Modeling biogeochemistry and harmful algal blooms on the Pacific Northwest coast

March 1, 2013
3:30pm
Location
VIMS - Watermen's Hall, McHugh Auditorium
1375 Greate Road
Gloucester Point, VA 23062Map this location
Presenter: Professor Parker MacCready of the University of Washington

Reception at 3:00 p.m. in the lobby of Watermen's Hall
Seminar from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in McHugh Auditorium

Background:
Dr. MacCready specializes in physical oceanography and bio-physical interactions in coastal and estuarine waters. His career path has been varied (B.A. Architecture Yale 1982, M.S. Engineering Science Caltech 1986, Ph.D. Oceanography UW 1991). His early interest in fluid mechanics came from flying: paper airplanes, hang gliders, his father's human powered airplanes, and the mysteries of flapping wing propulsion (search Pogo Foil). His oceanography projects have spanned shelf boundary layers (the "Arrested Ekman Layer"), deep boundary currents, the ACC, estuarine time dependence, form drag, and generally the use of unusual coordinate systems to understand stratified flow.

Abstract:
The coastal and estuarine waters of the NE Pacific, including Puget Sound, experience seasonal hypoxia and Harmful Algal Blooms. As part of a series of large observational projects, Dr. MacCready's group has developed realistic hindcast simulations of the entire region. These show good skill at reproducing currents and hydrography and moderate skill with biogeochemistry including dissolved oxygen. Like all such systems, transport pathways and retention regions strongly influence the biogeochemical response. Numerical dye and particle tracking experiments are used to illuminate these Lagrangian properties. On the shelf, wind events and interaction with the Columbia River plume are found to be of great importance.
Contact

[[seitz, Rochelle Seitz]] at 804-684-7698