2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting

February 21-26

The regional scope of the session includes North Atlantic seas (e.g., Labrador Sea, Irminger Sea, Iceland Basin) and semi-enclosed basins (e.g., Gulf of Main, Gulf of Saint Laurence, Newfoundland Basin, Hudson Bay, Baffin Bay), each showing strong annual, interannual and multidecadal variability and interacting with open ocean. The processes responsible for these changes and interactions may have atmospheric (e.g., varying cumulative heat losses driving winter convection in the Labrador Sea), terrestrial (e.g., varying fluvial and glacial discharge) and oceanic (e.g., advection of heat and salt, sea level rise) origin or nature. In turn, the forcing mechanism may be triggered by natural variability or anthropogenic factors. Each region, subregion or layer may show some characteristics of changes found elsewhere or act differently, including acceleration of dominant trends if not shifts between modal states. The session will present an opportunity to relate these findings and identify key points, processes and scales associated with the largest signals which are likely to influence many aspects of societal life. Interdisciplinary presentations, syntheses of existing sources of oceanographic information including, but not limited to, vessel and profiling float observations, moored and remote sensing data, comparisons of model simulations and observations are cordially invited.

• A - Air-sea Interactions and Upper Ocean Processes
• EC - Estuarine and Coastal
• ME - Marine Ecosystems
• PC - Past, Present and Future Climate