Macquarie University

Climate Change, Coasts and Oceans - ENVS301

Our oceans regulate and drive climate change, whilst the coastal and shelf environments experience some of the greatest impacts of climate change. This unit provides students with a comprehensive understanding of these interactions and impacts on a range of scales (ocean basin to regional coast) and time scales (past millennia to future decades). The unit is taught in four modules: ocean basin climate; palaeoclimatology and palaeoceanography of ocean basins; shelf oceanography; and near-shore and coastal climate change.

Module 1 is based on coupled ocean-atmosphere processes and investigates the changes in the thermohaline circulation, sea-surface temperatures, ocean gyres and eddies, surface wind-fields, marine clouds and precipitation, and storm tracks.

Module 2 investigates the past circulation of the ocean and atmosphere, including: palaeo wind-fields; palaeo sea-level changes; palaeo sea-surface temperature and salinity; and palaeo changes in climate modes such as ENSO.

Module 3 focuses on the ocean basin boundary currents, and wave climate change, with a strong focus on the eastern margin of Australia.

Module 4 examines large-scale coastal behaviour in response to climate change, such as wave climate change, sea-level change, coastal winds, coastal precipitation, and freshwater discharge and their alteration of sediment transport paths.