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Seminar: Meng Xia – University of Maryland Eastern Shore
November 28, 2018 @ 3:35 pm - 4:35 pm
UNC Marine Sciences’ is proud to host a seminar by Meng Xia, Ph.D. This event is scheduled for Wednesday, November 28th, at 3:35pm in room G201 on the ground floor of Murray Hall at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This seminar will also be broadcast live to both UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences room 222 and online via Zoom (Meeting ID: 919-962-1252).
Presenter Affiliation: Associate Professor in Physical Oceanography, Division of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Department of Natural Sciences, University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Title: How to help understand the effect of climate change to the Chesapeake Bay and its plume?
Abstract: The Chesapeake Bay outflow plume (CBOP) is the mixing zone between the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay, the largest and most biological diverse coastal plain estuary in North America. Using a numerical model, the simulated historical CBOP was classified into five types based on the orientation, shape, and size along with the available satellite imagery from 2003-2012. It was also found that streamflow and wind magnitude were responsible for the seasonal variability in surface plume area and thickness, respectively, and that streamflow explained most of the interannual variability in both surface plume area and thickness. Biogeochemical simulations were also conducted in order to determine the dominant environmental drivers of primary production in the plume region during these ten-year simulation, phytoplankton showed severe nitrogen limitation.
Based on the hindercast model, a downscaling method was applied to project the possible future physical and biological CBOP structure, which displayed an increasing trend in surface area in the coming decades. Experiments were then performed to explore the response of the plume signatures to ambient salinity, sea level rise, and sea temperature, as projected by the CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5) models. A robust climate model(s) and watershed model is highly required to improve the future CBOP projections.