Hydrodynamics

Professor Steven Morgan has developed key areas in coastal oceanography and larval biology at BML that are critical to the State’s needs and their priorities. His strong collaborations with the Coastal Oceanography Group is one of the key examples of interdisciplinary science at BML.

The peculiarities of how coastal currents change close to the shore is a surprisingly recent field of research and one in which several Bodega Marine Laboratory researchers are active, using approaches that include mathematics and field-observations. The study of internal waves dissipating nearshore, the slowing of currents in the coastal boundary layer, the breaking of waves on the shore, and the retention of waters in small coves and bays is understood within a broader view of nearshore ecology and environmental issues.

As part of the hydrological cycle, freshwater runs off the land and into the ocean – fueling ocean ecosystems with food and nutrients as well as affecting currents and stratification in coastal waters. Changes in the volume and timing of this runoff, as well as in the particulate and dissolved load, have a profound effect on coastal and estuarine waters with impacts on fisheries, ecosystems, wildlife and human health.