OA419

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Coastal and Shelf Sea Oceanography

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Convenors: Dr. Peter Statham &  Dr Jonathan Sharples

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Aims and course description:
Aims: This course aims to give an integrated overview of important topics in coastal and shelf sea oceanography, and to illustrate the described processes through studying a series of specific topical themes in an interdisciplinary way.

Note: It is vital to note that the structure of this unit is markedly different than anything you have previously experienced in your degree. The lectures are designed to provide you with the basics of a wide range of topics, and to expose you to up-to-date material from both the research and commercial sectors. Large blocks of time are specifically left "free" for your own work. This means that you need to manage your time alongside the demands of the assignments for the unit. Remember that the unit is assessed solely on the coursework you submit. Remember also that the next semester 2 unit that you do could start in the slot 1 week after the end of this one, so you MUST finish all coursework associated with OA419 to avoid assignments dragging on through to your next unit.

Description: Introduction handout.

Unit Profile.

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Assessment:
This unit is assessed wholly by coursework.

Deadline for all assignments: Monday March 3rd (am).

Essay on an inter-disciplinary topic (25%)
Oral Presentation - group exercise (15%)
Poster Presentation - group exercise (20%)
Modelling report (15%)
Reports on boat and laboratory practicals (25%)

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Lecture notes:

1: Introduction to course.

2: Inputs to shelf seas.

3: The physics of shelf seas.

• Regions of Freshwater Influence
• The open shelf
• The shelf edge

4: Human interactions in coastal zones.

5: Introduction to modelling.

• Introduction and the concept of finite differences
• Matlab example m files
• The modelling assignment
• model.doc
• assignment.doc

7: Pollution in coastal seas.

8: The Black Sea Case Study.

9: The Law of the Sea.

10. Shelf Sea Ecology (food webs).

11: Management of fisheries.

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Assignments descriptions:

Boatwork Assignment:

• ADCP introduction
• Fieldwork description
• Boat groups
• YOUR DATA
• Useful analysis software:
• CTD raw data processing
• ADCP data processing

 

 
 
 
 
 

Note that the above two files are self-extracting archives. Download the file, and then run it (double-click on it) from Windows Explorer. In the window that appears, browse to a directory on the pc you are using that you want to put the programs into. Once extracted, run the programs by double-clicking on them from within Windows Explorer (CTD_analysis.exe for the CTD data, ADCP_process.exe fro the ADCP data).
 

• You might want some help with Surfer: this document could be useful.

Modelling Assignment:

• model.doc
• assignment.doc
• example m files
• The 1D coupled model needed for the assignment [Note that this is a self-extracting zip file, accessed in the same way as those for the boatwork data analysis].
• Additional information

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Useful and interesting web sites:

SeaWIFS Ocean Colour Images.
European shelf edge exchange projects.
Permanent service for mean sea level.
Tidal bores.
NOAA tide page.
Hamburg University shelf sea projects.
oa311 shelf sea and shelf edge dynamics.
 

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