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ENVE301: Climate Change, Coasts and Oceans
Our oceans regulate and drive climate change, whilst the coastal and shelf environments experience some of the greatest impacts of climate change; i.e sea-level rise. 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 4 modules: Ocean Basin Climate; Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoceanography of Ocean Basins; Shelf Oceanography; and, Near-shore and Coastal Climate Change. Module one 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 two 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 three focuses on the ocean basin boundary currents, and wave climate change, with a strong focus on the eastern margin of Australia. Module four 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.
| Credit Points: | 3 |
| Contact Hours: | 5 |
| When Offered: | D2 - Day; Offered in the second half-year |
| Staff Contact(s): | Associate Professor Ian Goodwin, Professor Murry Salby, Dr Kevin Cheung |
| Prerequisites: | |
| Corequisites: | |
| NCCW(s): | GEOS301 |
| Unit Designation(s): | |
| Assessed As: | Graded |
| Offered By: | Department of Environment and Geography |
Timetable Information
For unit timetable information please visit the Timetables@Macquarie Website .