Research
Research Projects
Semi-arid coastal basins as indicators of climate crisis adaptation
Anillos de Investigación en Áreas Temáticas Específicas (2022-2025)
Postdoctoral Opportunity (pdf)
Stratified coastal dynamics of internal waves and glacial river plume interactions
ONR Global (2022-2025)
Improving understanding of sediment dynamics in strong salinity stratification using innovative field methods
Fondecyt Iniciación en Investigación 2019 (2019 - 2023)
The transport and fate of contaminated sediments, the supply of fine sediments to wetlands, or the erosion of those same wetlands requires a physical understanding of the dominant processes controlling sediment dynamics. Strong salinity stratification in bar-built estuaries typical of central Chile, California, and other coastal Mediterranean climates may act to trap suspended sediment to one distinct water mass (i.e. fresh or salt water), aiding advection of fine sediments in one case and perhaps retention of benthic sediments in the other. However, few studies have investigated sediment dynamics in these small systems, and limited understanding of sediment transport in these strongly stratified system prevents accurate prediction of environmental consequences of sediment dynamics.
To study the processes controlling fate of estuarine suspended sediments in strong salinity stratification, excellent spatial coverage of measurements is required - an approach that merits the use of both traditional commercially available sensors, and low-cost DIY sensors. This project will utilize existing hydrodynamics measurements from a small bar-built estuary in California to qualitatively inform questions on timescales of sediment resuspension compared to timescales of vertical mixing, and use measurements of tidal, wind, and inlet-breaching dynamics to drive observations with traditional and low-costs sensors in Chile.
Physical and biological dynamic coastal processes and their role in coastal recovery (BLUE-Coast)
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Highlight Topic (2016 - 2020) https://projects.noc.ac.uk/bluecoast/
Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Highlight Topic (2015 - 2018) https://www.uk-ssb.org/