Shelf Sea Oceanography and Meteorology research group: completed projects
Learn more about our completed projects

The principal aim of the project was to gain a greater insight into the processes relevant to large-amplitude internal waves generated by barotropic tide in the Strait of Gibraltar and to quantify in detail the transformation of tidal energy, from barotropic to baroclinic component and ultimately to mixing. The processes to be studied were:
The specific objectives of this work included:
Mini-researchers (Meteorology and Oceanography)
Len Wood and Steve Bennetts – in conjunction with a partnership of schools called Leading Edge – took part in a floating classroom for 60 students on Tuesday 12 July 2005.
Partners: Leading Edge schools, Plymouth, UK
Objectives:
This innovative approach to learning means that students from four schools across Devon and Cornwall were invited to spend the day at the Mount Batten Centre in Plymouth. Groups of students from Tamarside and Callington Community Colleges and Looe and Liskeard Community Schools took turns to spend two hour sessions on a boat out in Plymouth Sound learning about meteorology, oceanography, charts, angles and bearings.
The students took on the role of mini-researchers measuring and comparing air temperature, windspeed, and water visibility in Plymouth Sound and the Tamar.
There was a benefit of immersion in a variety of teaching and learning styles for 15 students from each of the schools involved.
Professor Georgy Shapiro was Chief Scientist for two fieldwork cruises in May 2004 in the Black Sea off Bulgaria and Ukraine. The cruise was commissioned by the Black Sea Ecosystem Recover (BSERP) Project Implementation Unit in Istanbul and was funded by the Global Environment Facility of the UN.
This EU-funded project was led by the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Norway. The research developed key ocean-atmosphere and ice datasets and models to study the past, present and future climate changes in the Nordic Seas. Further information about The Nordic Seas in the global climate system.
This video was developed with sponsorship from the Centre for Sustainable Futures and Schumacher College and is intended to give a "simple" (understandable to first year students and applicants) holistic presentation of a complex problem of the role of negative feedbacks in climate change.
The overall goals of the project were to acquire a better understanding of the dynamic and kinematic processes relevant to nonlinear internal waves in lakes, to quantify the physical processes controlling the transfer of energy within the internal wave field from large to small scales and to gain more knowledge on impact caused by wave mixing on the lake ecosystem.
The specific objectives of this work included:
The achievement of the main goal of the project gave the possibility to understand the energy cascading from the wind to the basin-scale internal waves, and then to shorter solitary waves and turbulence in the benthic boundary layer.
The goal of the project was to gain a greater insight into the processes relevant to nonlinear internal waves in stratified estuaries and fjords produced by an external tidal forcing in a jet-type fjordic system, and to quantify in detail the pathway of tidal energy transformation, from barotropic to baroclinic component and ultimately to mixing.
The research objectives of this work included:
The achievement of the project objectives has led to an understanding of the energy flow path from the barotropic tidal flux to internal waves, and then to shorter solitary waves and turbulence in ôjet-typeö fjordic systems, when generated baroclinic disturbances are effectively arrested by strong tidal currents.
Partners:
Objectives:
Summary of research:
The Patos Lagoon and estuary system is of major importance to the communities of the Rio Grande do Sul State, with the consequence of being subject to the influence of multiple and conflicting human impacts, many of which have the potential for pollution.
Such activities include recreation and tourism; abstraction of drinking water and the disposal of domestic waste water; the industries of fertiliser production, fish processing, and petroleum refining; artisanal fisheries and aquaculture; agriculture; and navigation. Within the boundaries of the estuary are several shallow embayments, which are degraded environments suffering from the effects of pollution from many of these sources.
Conference presentations:
Partners:
Objectives:
The main goal of the project is to provide a deeper understanding of physical mechanisms that control the hydrodynamic regimes associated with submarine canyons and to evaluate their impact on mass transfer between the continental shelf and open ocean.
This EU project was led by the Institut de Ciences de Mar in Barcelona, for further information please visit their project web page.
This project developed the understanding and modelling of dense water overflows, such as "cascading" as a meso-scale process. The project was led by the UK Natural Environment Research Council, with partners from the UK, Russia, Belarus and Germany.
Further information about the dense water overflows off continental shelves project.
Collaborators:
Objectives:
Relating recent/ongoing changes in ice and climate in Greenland to improve understanding of present-day surface mass balance of Greenland Ice Sheet and its likely response to future sea-level change.
Journal publications:
Conference presentations:
This project investigated the mesoscale water mass structure of the White Sea, which lies off the northwest coast of Russia. The project compared and contrasted the hydrology of the White Sea with the Irish Sea, which another example of a semi-enclosed sea.
Morphodynamics of Estuarine Systems in the United Kingdom: Teignmouth and Humber
Partners:
Objectives:
The management of estuaries requires a good understanding of their multiple uses and complex processes which are intrinsically related. The main objectives of this project are to provide a better comprehension of the mechanisms involved in the morphodynamic evolution of estuaries, and to address the problems that arise when controlling these systems. This kind of approach has a general application and constitutes the state of the art in the management of estuaries all over the world.
In order to achieve these objectives and to test two real data sets, Teignmouth (South Devon) and the Humber Estuary (Yorkshire), both in UK, were chosen as case studies due to the extensive information available for these sites. TELEMAC numerical model was selected to simulate the morphodynamic processes inherent to these environments.
Specific research aspects addressed in this project are:
Mesh representation of field areas:
Collaborator:
Professor Keith Dyer (Institute of Marine Studies, University of Plymouth, UK)
Synopsis:
Tidal cycles in turbulence, current velocity and salinity are compared with near-bed mud suspension characteristics through in-situ measurements of floc settling velocity, size and mass concentration. The complex nature of flocculating suspensions results in lags in the response of sediment properties to local forcing mechanisms which has important implications for residual flux magnitudes and directions. This study will examine the phase relationships between floc settling velocity, size and density, suspension concentration, turbulence and velocity in an estuarine environment and use the results to estimate transport and deposition rates as well as net fluxes over a tidal cycle. Dependent monitoring of wave breaking conditions.
Synopsis:
Ambient noise generated by breaking waves provides information relating to the amount of energy that is lost in the breaking process. This energy is important in coastal seas because it generates turbulence and currents, suspends sediment and transports it along the coast. This work studies ambient noise in surf conditions by using an omnidirectional broad-band hydrophone to listen to the sound generated by waves breaking.
Current and wave height information will be provided by current meters and pressure sensors respectively. The hydrophone data gives temporal information on the sound character of individual breakers and is compared with hydrodynamic and sediment concentration measurements. An over water video of the sea surface above the hydrophones will provide independent monitoring of wave breaking conditions.
Partners:
Objectives:
The project aims are to identify and quantify meso-scale physical and biogeochemical processes in the coastal waters of the White Sea and the Barents Sea and to assess the environmental impact of these processes. The main specific objectives are to:
Journal publications:
Conference presentations:
Invited lectures:
Field programme:
Partners: Cambridge, UEA, CEFAS
Synopsis:
This ongoing collaboration involves analysis of sediment and hydrodynamic information acquired by the CEFAS minipods in an inner shelf environment at five different locations and over a period of two months in 1997.
Journal publications
Papers in progress
Conference presentations