Very Near Shore HAB Production Models
Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB) are serious threats along shore. They can be concentrated by filter feeders’ used for human consumption, becoming a serious threat for public healthy and for aquaculture industry. For their implications on human heath, they are monitored regularly, and alerts are issued by public authorities whenever detected and the displacement of the bloom is often forecasted using particle-tracking models, giving some time to aquaculture producers to take mitigation actions (e.g., earlier cropping). Warnings based on a probability of occurrence of a bloom would increase benefits for aquaculture but are still a challenge for the scientific community.
Candidates
AIR Centre PhD grants are aimed at applicants enrolled or that comply with the requirements to enroll for PhD related studies and who wish to carry out research towards this degree. Candidates holding a master’s degree or a 5-year undergraduate diploma in engineering, oceanography or related fields may apply. Good skills on Fluid Mechanics (from oceanography or engineering) and programing are preferred. Candidates must explain in the motivation letter their vision of the problem to be solved and why they have the skills necessary to carry the job. Candidates must present a tentative workplan for the applied theme.
Working Hypothesis
In fact, the cause of the blooms is not yet fully understood, although it is accepted that HAB’s are a consequence of unbalanced nutrients that favour the species that can live with less or extract the missing nutrients from alternative sources, e.g., though mixotrophy. Toxic algae species have those capacities and the species that bloom in each condition depend on specific stressing conditions. With present knowledge it is not yet possible to predict HAB blooms deterministically, but one can seek for a probability of occurrence based on the stressing conditions. Models and remote sensing are the best tools to identify those conditions. The former give information about nutrients in the water column, and the latter give information about some properties related with primary production (e.g., surface temperature and chlorophyll) and are easy to get. Remote sensing data is also useful to validate the models and eventually to be assimilated.
Objectives
The aims of this thesis are (1) to improve and validate a biogeochemical model for the Iberian Atlantic able to identify nutrient stress conditions, (2) to collect remote sensing data for model validation and (3) create a HAB probability index combining these two sources of information with in-situ toxic algae data measured along the Portuguese coast (blooms and regular monitoring) and bibliographical data.
Background work
A circulation and primary production model is running operationally for the Iberian Atlantic http://forecast.maretec.org and in-situ measurements of phytoplankton species have been measures by the university of Coimbra in the region of Figueira da Foz, in the middle coastal zone of Portugal. Remote sensing data is available and has been processed. The student will start from this work. He will refine the hydrodynamic model in order to get the small-scale features of the flow that can be relevant for HAB and will use this model to improve the biogeochemical model and will validate the whole system using the remote sensing and the in-situ data.
Main Research products
Using the modelling system the student will compute nutrient budgets in the coastal region, assessing the importance of the anthropogenic nutrients discharged by estuaries and comparing it with the nutrients carried by coastal upwelling. The assessment will quantify the relative importance for ocean productivity, but also dos the balance of nutrients and thus for the probability of inducing HABs. The student will also address climate change varying the upwelling/downwelling oscillation to assess the implications of climate change for the frequency of HABs
Name(s) of supervisor(s)
Supervisor- Prof. Dr. Ramiro Neves, ramiro.neves@tecnico.ulisboa.pt, MARETEC/Instituto Superior Técnico
Co-supervisor – Dr. Ana Carla Garcia, acmgarcia@uc.pt, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
Co-supervisor – Dr. Francisco Campuzano, francisco.campuzano@colabatlantic.com, +ATLANTIC CoLAB, Portugal
Name(s) of hosting institution(s)
The work will be carried in the MARETEC Research (www.maretec.org) at Instituto Superior Técnico in the MOHID Modelling team under the supervision of the team coordinator, Prof. Ramiro Neves. The student can spend part of the time at HIDROMOD to perform data analysis and case studies analysis following programs to be agreed between the supervisor and the co-supervisor.
Identification of PhD program
PhD Program in Environmental Engineering offered by Instituto Superior Técnico
Please check program’s website for PhD application deadlines: https://fenix.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/cursos/deamb