15.06.2026: Ocean Circulation and Climate Dynamics Colloquium
Erik van Sebille, Utrecht University: "Chasing water: The oceanography of the transport of floating material"
When? Monday, 15th of June, at 11:00
Where? The conference room 5-1.214 (Building 5) and
Webex: https://geomar.webex.com/geomar-en/j.php?MTID=ma73a9dd4db0f5cb6275b471e1c5e6005
Abstract:
Ocean currents transport material like nutrients, plankton and plastic over the globe. The most natural way to study these transport pathways is by simulating virtual Lagrangian particles in fine-resolution ocean models.
In this seminar, I will give an overview of some recent work with Lagrangian particle analysis. I will introduce our open-source parcels-code.org framework and its new developments to support output from the ICON and FESOM models. I will show how we use this framework to simulate the transport of micro- and macroplastic, in order to map their distributions on scales of kilometres. I will discuss how we develop new parameterizations for subgrid-scale transport processes of floating material; and compare these parameterizations to field and lab measurements. I will particularly focus on coastal processes and how they control the beaching, resuspension and fragmentation of particulate items.
