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. In
particular, my work addresses the question that
‘How can we couple key
physical and biogeochemical processes using natural and 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?’ Specifically, I measure chlorofluorocarbon gases as
decadal-scale tracers of circulation and ventilation in the major
ocean basins as well as in marginal seas such as East (Japan) Sea. I
also analyze the
temporal trend of dissolved oxygen in the
Southern Ocean, and the North
Pacific and the North Atlantic Oceans during the past several decades
to
detect the ocean’s
response to climate change. My
methodological approaches include laboratory measurement, sea-going
observation,
large-scale data analysis, and conceptual numerical
modeling of biogeochemical processes.
I am also interested in
understanding coastal ocean water exchange processes between local bays
and the Gulf, climate-related
gas exchange processes in the coastal salt marsh and wetlands, role of
groundwater in exchanging chemicals in the coastal
area,
non-conservative behavior of some halocarbon compounds, time-series
ocean observations, and large-scale
circulation and ventilation in the Gulf of
Mexico region.
