Ocean Currents
Physical Drivers in a Changing World
- 1st Edition - June 25, 2021
- Imprint: Elsevier
- Authors: Robert Marsh, Erik van Sebille
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 8 1 6 0 5 9 - 6
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 8 1 6 0 6 0 - 2
Ocean Currents: Physical Drivers in a Changing World opens with a general introduction to the character, measurement, and simulation of ocean currents, leading to a physical and dy… Read more
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Request a sales quoteOcean Currents: Physical Drivers in a Changing World opens with a general introduction to the character, measurement, and simulation of ocean currents, leading to a physical and dynamical framework for understanding the wide variety of flows encountered in the oceans. The book comprises chapters covering distinct aspects of contrasting ocean currents: broad and slow, deep and shallow, narrow and swift, large scale and small scale, low latitudes and high latitudes, and moving in horizontal and vertical planes. Through this approach the authors cover a wide range of applications, from local to global, with considerable geographical context.
- Provides analyses of ocean observations and numerical model simulations, highlighting the pathways and drift associated with ocean currents, around the World Ocean, linked to online exercises for instructors and students that extend this perspective
- Presents applications to natural phenomena, showing how ocean currents shape marine ecosystems, helping researchers understand the distribution and adaptation of life in the oceans
- Addresses societal challenges, specifically how ocean currents disperse pollutants (e.g. plastic) from coastal sources and how the global ocean circulation is central to our changing climate, helping students and researchers develop an interdisciplinary approach to global environmental change
Students and Researchers in Marine Biology, Biological Science, Marine Science, Oceanography, Environmental Science, Geography, and programs involving marine policy and law, climatologists and scientists studying climate change
- Cover image
- Title page
- Table of Contents
- Copyright
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1: The restless ocean
- Abstract
- 1.1: Ten big questions
- 1.2: Organization vs. chaos
- 1.3: Measuring the ocean—Challenges and international organization
- 1.4: Measuring ocean currents
- 1.5: Estimating ocean currents
- 1.6: Computer simulation of ocean currents
- 1.7: An ocean of scales
- 1.8: Summary
- Chapter 2: Frameworks, data, and methods
- Abstract
- 2.1: Essential physics and scalar conservation
- 2.2: Essential dynamics—With the flow and at a fixed point
- 2.3: Scaling arguments and approximating the equations of motion
- 2.4: Ocean and climate data products
- 2.5: Numerical models of the ocean and climate
- 2.6: Particle tracking
- 2.7: Resourcing Chapters 3–12
- 2.8: Exercises
- Chapter 3: Surface drift, gyres, and the fate of plastic
- Abstract
- 3.1: Large scales in space and time
- 3.2: The restless atmosphere
- 3.3: Local response to wind—Surface drift
- 3.4: Basin-scale response—The great gyres
- 3.5: Gyre circulation and Ekman currents—The combined surface drift
- 3.6: Additional influences on surface and near-surface drift
- 3.7: Examples of surface drift at basin scale
- Chapter 4: Western boundary currents and drifting organisms
- Abstract
- 4.1: Mapping and characterizing western boundary currents
- 4.2: Local force balance
- 4.3: Basin-scale force balance
- 4.4: Drift through western boundary current systems—Particle trajectories, ensemble statistics, and ecological consequences
- 4.5: Transports associated with western boundary currents
- Chapter 5: Eastern boundary currents, upwelling, and high biological productivity
- Abstract
- 5.1: Mapping and characterizing EBC systems
- 5.2: Ekman dynamics in the presence of a coast
- 5.3: Geostrophy in the presence of topography
- 5.4: Slope currents
- 5.5: Drift along and across eastern boundary current systems—3D water parcel trajectories and the ecological consequences
- Chapter 6: The tropical oceans, interannual climate variability, and ecosystem adaptation
- Abstract
- 6.1: Mapping and characterizing currents near the Equator
- 6.2: Ekman dynamics near the Equator
- 6.3: Tropical variability
- 6.4: Drift in the tropics—2D water parcel trajectories and some ecological consequences
- 6.5: Tropical ocean circulation and climate variability
- Chapter 7: From the northern subpolar oceans to the Arctic and its retreating sea ice
- Abstract
- 7.1: The northern cryosphere
- 7.2: The atmosphere at mid and high latitudes
- 7.3: Water masses of subpolar and high latitudes
- 7.4: Ocean circulation at subpolar and high latitudes
- 7.5: Variability and long-term change
- Chapter 8: From the Southern Ocean to Antarctica and its changing ice shelves
- Abstract
- 8.1: The southern cryosphere
- 8.2: The atmosphere at southern high latitudes
- 8.3: Water masses of the Southern Ocean and around Antarctica
- 8.4: Surface and deep-reaching currents
- 8.5: Meridional overturning cells and sensitivity of the 3D circulation to wind forcing
- 8.6: Modelling the Southern Ocean—A brief history and the status quo
- 8.7: Applied contexts
- Chapter 9: Processes and flows in marginal seas
- Abstract
- 9.1: Processes in marginal seas
- 9.2: Deep or isolated marginal seas
- 9.3: Shelf seas
- 9.4: Freshwater influences
- 9.5: Biological productivity and pollution in marginal seas
- Chapter 10: Ocean boundaries, connectivity, and inter-ocean exchanges
- Abstract
- 10.1: Defining an ocean basin
- 10.2: Surface connectivity
- 10.3: Upper-ocean connectivity and inter-ocean exchanges
- 10.4: Fronts as demarcation lines
- 10.5: Coherent structures and marine biogeography
- 10.6: Re-defining an ocean basin
- Chapter 11: The global circulation and transformation of water masses
- Abstract
- 11.1: Piecing together a global circulation
- 11.2: Meridional overturning cells, forcing, and energetics
- 11.3: Global trajectories and pathways of water parcels
- 11.4: Re-thinking circulation in property space
- 11.5: Linking the circulation and transformation of water masses
- Chapter 12: Ocean currents, heat transport, and climate
- Abstract
- 12.1: Meridional heat transport by the AMOC and north European warmth
- 12.2: Variability of the large-scale ocean circulation and regional climate
- 12.3: Tracing the global overturning in changing property distributions
- 12.4: Abrupt climate change in the past—A warning for the future
- Epilogue: Looking ahead
- 1: Unfolding changes in ocean currents
- 2: Emerging technologies
- 3: Opportunities and solutions
- Index
- Edition: 1
- Published: June 25, 2021
- No. of pages (Paperback): 380
- No. of pages (eBook): 380
- Imprint: Elsevier
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN: 9780128160596
- eBook ISBN: 9780128160602
RM
Robert Marsh
Professor Robert Marsh holds a Chair in Oceanography and Climate at the University of Southampton. With disciplinary expertise in Physical Oceanography, he has a wide range of experience across ocean and climate science, and specifically an in-depth knowledge of ocean currents. Examples of applied studies include the influences of ocean currents on sea turtle hatchlings, volcanic pumice and icebergs. He also co-pioneered the development and use of ocean, climate and Earth System models, and the water mass transformation framework that provides a novel perspective on physical and biogeochemical processes in the oceans. He has extensive experience of undergraduate and postgraduate oceanography teaching, both in the classroom and in the field. He is lead or co-author of around 100 peer-reviewed publications.
Affiliations and expertise
Professor in Oceanography, Head of Physical Oceanography Research Group, University of Southampton, UKES
Erik van Sebille
Dr Erik van Sebille is an Professor in Oceanography at Utrecht University, investigating the time scales and pathways of the global ocean circulation. His research focuses on how ocean currents transport heat and nutrients, as well as marine organisms and plastics between different regions. He has led the “Tracking Of Plastic In Our Seas” (TOPIOS) project, funded by European Research Council Starting Grant. He won the 2016 European Geosciences Union (EGU) Ocean Division Outstanding Young Scientist Award, a 2019 American Geophysical Union (AGU) James B. Macelwane Medal and the 2020 European Research Council (ERC) Public Engagement with Research Award in the category Press & media relations. He is lead or co-author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications.
Affiliations and expertise
Professor in Oceanography, Utrecht University, The NetherlandsRead Ocean Currents on ScienceDirect