Dong-Ha Min

Assistant Professor, Department of  Marine Science, Research Assistant Professor, Marine Science    Institute  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   Home page   e-mail: dongha@mail.utexas.edu

Tracer Oceanography

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.