Research Projects

Physical-Biological Study of the Northeast U.S. Shelf

Past variability and future change.

The ecosystem services of the northeast US region (e.g., fisheries, energy, tourism, recreation, health, etc.) are particularly vulnerable to climate change by virtue of their location at the confluence of the (cold) Labrador Current and the (warm) Gulf Stream, and a local rate of sea level rise predicted to exceed the global mean. Changes in climate will cause shifts in the location of the temperature fronts, water mass and associated biogeographic boundaries, ground and surface water distribution, directly affecting the ecosystem’s structure and the associated resources. In this project, a collaboration between the ESM lab and NOAA, we are using high-resolution coupled physical-biogeochemical models for the northeast US shelf to address questions and build capacity for understanding and predicting climate-ecosystem interactions in the region.