Dong-Ha Min


Lecturer, Department of  Marine Science
  • Ph.D., Oceanography, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, 1999
  • M.S., Oceanography, Seoul National University, Korea, 1989
  • B.S., Oceanography, Seoul National University, Korea, 1987  
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Ocean Circulation & Climate Change; Tracer Oceanography; Coastal Ocean Observation; Salt Marsh Gas Flux

Research Interests

My research focuses on ocean circulation and ventilation processes, their temporal variability in response to climate change, and their impacts on biogeochemical processes in the coastal and open oceans. I am also interested in coastal ocean observation such as study of the water and property exchange processes between estuarine and offshore waters at tidal inlets in the Gulf of Mexico region and the role of groundwater in exchanging chemicals with the ocean in the coastal area. In particular, my work addresses the question that ‘How can we couple key physical and biogeochemical processes using anthropogenic tracers and detect and interpret impact of natural variability in the marine environment over interannual to decadal time scales, in global and regional scales?’. My methodological approaches include laboratory measurement, sea-going observation, large-scale data analysis, and numerical modeling of biogeochemical processes.

My current research focuses on how to detect and understand changes in the ocean's geochemical and physical processes caused by global warming, and how this can be used to better predict the global change and impacts. Specifically, I am working on the analysis of temporal trend of dissolved oxygen in the Southern Ocean, and the North Pacific and the North Atlantic Oceans during the past decades to detect the ocean’s response to climate change.

Selected Publications

Fine, R.A., W.M. Smethie, Jr., J.L. Bullister, M. Rhein, D.-H. Min, M.J. Warner, A. Poisson, and R.F. Weiss, Decadal Ventilation and Mixing of Indian Ocean Waters, Deep-Sea Research I, 55, 20-37, doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2007.10.002, 2008.

Talley, L.D., Dong-Ha Min, Vyacheslav B. Lobanov, Vladimir A. Luchin, Vladimir I. Ponomarev, Anatoly N. Salyuk, Andrey Y. Shcherbina, Pavel Y. Tishchenko, and Igor Zhabin, Japan/East Sea water masses and their relation to the sea's circulation, Oceanography (Special Edition: Japan/East Sea), 19 (3), 32-49, 2006.

Min, D.-H., and K. Keller, Errors in estimated temporal tracer trends due to changes in the historical observation network: A case study of oxygen trends in the Southern Ocean, Ocean and Polar Research,  27(2), 189-195, 2005.

Min, D.-H. and M.J.Warner, Basin-wide circulation and ventilation study in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) using chlorofluorocarbon tracers. Deep-Sea Research II 52, 1580-1616, 2005.

Min, D.-H., J.L. Bullister, and R.F. Weiss, Anomalous chlorofluorocarbons in the Southern California Borderland Basin, Geophysical Research Letters, 29(20), 1955, doi: 10.1029/2002GL015408, 2002.

Rhein, M., J. Fischer, W.M. Smethie Jr., D. Smythe-Wright, R.F. Weiss, C. Mertens, D.-H. Min, U. Fleischmann, and A. Putzka, Labrador Sea Water: Pathways, CFC - Inventory and Formation Rates. Journal of Physical Oceanography (special edition), 32, 648-665, 2002.

Min, D.-H., J.L. Bullister, and R.F. Weiss, Constant ventilation age of thermocline water in the eastern subtropical North Pacific Ocean from chlorofluorocarbon measurements over a 12-year period, Geophysical Research Letters, 27, 3909-3912, 2000.