Bertarelli-Annual-Report-2024-LR - Flipbook - Page 17
Projects
Marine Science 2023
15
Multi-scale
Oceanographic Modelling
Lead Investigator: Dr. Phil Hosegood,
University of Plymouth
This project team is working to interpret predominantly
numerical models and remote sensing of the Indian
Ocean physical oceanographic regime to explain animal
behaviour, particle dispersal, and other interfaces between
the physical environment and animal ecology.
The team made good progress in identifying the driving
mechanisms behind marine heatwaves, the influence of the
Indonesian Throughflow on tropical Indian Ocean dynamics,
and manta aggregations in the Maldives. Specifically,
they detailed the mechanisms responsible for excessive
warming throughout the Mozambique Channel and the
surrounding region. They also ran the first simulations
to unravel the influence of changes in the Indonesian
Throughflow on basin-scale stratification throughout
the Indian Ocean but with specific focus on the Chagos
Archipelago and the associated primary productivity.
Research is also progressing on simulations of circulation
in and around Hanifaru Bay, Maldives, that has already
demonstrated that the likely mechanism responsible for
manta aggregations within the bay are topographically
induced eddies that concentrate zooplankton.
Islands in the Maldives © Ishan Hassan
