{"id":{"repo_id":"woods-hole","oai_identifier":"oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/71792"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/woods-hole/oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/71792","repository":{"repo_id":"woods-hole","name":"Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute","base_url":"https://darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Cross-frontal exchange at the US Northeast shelfbreak","abstract":"Exchange across the semipermeable US Northeast shelfbreak front is a potential driver of irreversible change to the continental shelf waters, its productive ecosystem, and economically valuable fisheries. However, cross-frontal exchange is difficult to observe directly because it is highly intermittent, non-linear, and driven by both internal frontal instability and external forcing. In this thesis, I quantify eddy-driven exchange across the US Northeast shelfbreak front and its impact on the coastal ocean, starting on seasonal timescales and moving toward individual synoptic events. For this task, I take advantage of unprecedented multi-year observations from the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Coastal Pioneer Array (2014-2022). On seasonal timescales, the buoyancy-driven shelfbreak front is persistently trapped at the shelfbreak, which supports theoretical predictions of shelfbreak frontogenesis (Chapter 2). However, exchange across the shelfbreak front leads to a significant increase in salinity on the continental shelf between spring and fall. A volume budget of the subsurface continental shelf ‘cold pool’, habitat of the valuable benthic ecosystem, quantifies the contribution of eddy-driven advection to the observed salinity increase and explains the seasonal cycle of watermass variability on the shelf (Chapter 3). However, the multi-year averaged cold pool watermass budget does not capture the intermittency of cross-shelfbreak eddy-fluxes on synoptic timescales. Thus, I demonstrate how individual mooring timeseries can be used to capture the statistical distribution of eddy-driven exchange by assessing cross-shelfbreak eddy-covariance fluxes of salt and heat (Chapter 4). Mean eddy-covariance fluxes align well with previous residual estimates of cross-shelfbreak exchange to close coastal watermass budgets, and just 10-20% of statistically anomalous events are responsible for half the multi-year mean flux. To characterize rapid changes in continental shelf watermass properties over short timescales, I investigate the decline of seasonal stratification due to individual weather events and identify signatures of cross-shelfbreak exchange in wind-driven destratification (Chapter 5). Altogether, this thesis extends our understanding of the characteristics, timing, and magnitude of eddy-driven exchange across the US Northeast shelfbreak front on varying timescales. This information can help to inform how large-scale, long-term trends will impact the US East Coast coastal ocean and its marine ecosystem.","abstract_html":"Exchange across the semipermeable US Northeast shelfbreak front is a potential driver of irreversible change to the continental shelf waters, its productive ecosystem, and economically valuable fisheries. However, cross-frontal exchange is difficult to observe directly because it is highly intermittent, non-linear, and driven by both internal frontal instability and external forcing. In this thesis, I quantify eddy-driven exchange across the US Northeast shelfbreak front and its impact on the coastal ocean, starting on seasonal timescales and moving toward individual synoptic events. For this task, I take advantage of unprecedented multi-year observations from the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Coastal Pioneer Array (2014-2022). On seasonal timescales, the buoyancy-driven shelfbreak front is persistently trapped at the shelfbreak, which supports theoretical predictions of shelfbreak frontogenesis (Chapter 2). However, exchange across the shelfbreak front leads to a significant increase in salinity on the continental shelf between spring and fall. A volume budget of the subsurface continental shelf ‘cold pool’, habitat of the valuable benthic ecosystem, quantifies the contribution of eddy-driven advection to the observed salinity increase and explains the seasonal cycle of watermass variability on the shelf (Chapter 3). However, the multi-year averaged cold pool watermass budget does not capture the intermittency of cross-shelfbreak eddy-fluxes on synoptic timescales. Thus, I demonstrate how individual mooring timeseries can be used to capture the statistical distribution of eddy-driven exchange by assessing cross-shelfbreak eddy-covariance fluxes of salt and heat (Chapter 4). Mean eddy-covariance fluxes align well with previous residual estimates of cross-shelfbreak exchange to close coastal watermass budgets, and just 10-20% of statistically anomalous events are responsible for half the multi-year mean flux. To characterize rapid changes in continental shelf watermass properties over short timescales, I investigate the decline of seasonal stratification due to individual weather events and identify signatures of cross-shelfbreak exchange in wind-driven destratification (Chapter 5). Altogether, this thesis extends our understanding of the characteristics, timing, and magnitude of eddy-driven exchange across the US Northeast shelfbreak front on varying timescales. This information can help to inform how large-scale, long-term trends will impact the US East Coast coastal ocean and its marine ecosystem.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Taenzer, Lukas L."],"institution":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Gawarkiewicz,Glen G.","Plueddemann, Albert J."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-06","date_published":"2025-06","updated_at":"2026-07-27T22:05:21Z","subjects":["Shelfbreak exchange","Shelfbreak front","Physical Oceanography"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["10.1575/1912/71792"],"render_values":[{"text":"10.1575/1912/71792","href":"https://doi.org/10.1575/1912/71792","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/1912/71792","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Gawarkiewicz,Glen G.","Plueddemann, Albert J."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Taenzer, Lukas L."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2025-05-19T19:13:21Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2025-05-19T19:13:21Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2025-06"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Shelfbreak exchange","Shelfbreak front","Physical Oceanography"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["10.1575/1912/71792"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/1912/71792"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution June 2025."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Exchange across the semipermeable US Northeast shelfbreak front is a potential driver of irreversible change to the continental shelf waters, its productive ecosystem, and economically valuable fisheries. However, cross-frontal exchange is difficult to observe directly because it is highly intermittent, non-linear, and driven by both internal frontal instability and external forcing. In this thesis, I quantify eddy-driven exchange across the US Northeast shelfbreak front and its impact on the coastal ocean, starting on seasonal timescales and moving toward individual synoptic events. For this task, I take advantage of unprecedented multi-year observations from the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Coastal Pioneer Array (2014-2022). On seasonal timescales, the buoyancy-driven shelfbreak front is persistently trapped at the shelfbreak, which supports theoretical predictions of shelfbreak frontogenesis (Chapter 2). However, exchange across the shelfbreak front leads to a significant increase in salinity on the continental shelf between spring and fall. A volume budget of the subsurface continental shelf ‘cold pool’, habitat of the valuable benthic ecosystem, quantifies the contribution of eddy-driven advection to the observed salinity increase and explains the seasonal cycle of watermass variability on the shelf (Chapter 3). However, the multi-year averaged cold pool watermass budget does not capture the intermittency of cross-shelfbreak eddy-fluxes on synoptic timescales. Thus, I demonstrate how individual mooring timeseries can be used to capture the statistical distribution of eddy-driven exchange by assessing cross-shelfbreak eddy-covariance fluxes of salt and heat (Chapter 4). Mean eddy-covariance fluxes align well with previous residual estimates of cross-shelfbreak exchange to close coastal watermass budgets, and just 10-20% of statistically anomalous events are responsible for half the multi-year mean flux. To characterize rapid changes in continental shelf watermass properties over short timescales, I investigate the decline of seasonal stratification due to individual weather events and identify signatures of cross-shelfbreak exchange in wind-driven destratification (Chapter 5). Altogether, this thesis extends our understanding of the characteristics, timing, and magnitude of eddy-driven exchange across the US Northeast shelfbreak front on varying timescales. This information can help to inform how large-scale, long-term trends will impact the US East Coast coastal ocean and its marine ecosystem."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Cross-frontal exchange at the US Northeast shelfbreak"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Gawarkiewicz,Glen G.","Plueddemann, Albert J."],"dc:creator":["Taenzer, Lukas L."],"dc:date.accessioned":["2025-05-19T19:13:21Z"],"dc:date.available":["2025-05-19T19:13:21Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2025-06"],"dc:description":["Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution June 2025."],"dc:description.abstract":["Exchange across the semipermeable US Northeast shelfbreak front is a potential driver of irreversible change to the continental shelf waters, its productive ecosystem, and economically valuable fisheries. However, cross-frontal exchange is difficult to observe directly because it is highly intermittent, non-linear, and driven by both internal frontal instability and external forcing. In this thesis, I quantify eddy-driven exchange across the US Northeast shelfbreak front and its impact on the coastal ocean, starting on seasonal timescales and moving toward individual synoptic events. For this task, I take advantage of unprecedented multi-year observations from the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Coastal Pioneer Array (2014-2022). On seasonal timescales, the buoyancy-driven shelfbreak front is persistently trapped at the shelfbreak, which supports theoretical predictions of shelfbreak frontogenesis (Chapter 2). However, exchange across the shelfbreak front leads to a significant increase in salinity on the continental shelf between spring and fall. A volume budget of the subsurface continental shelf ‘cold pool’, habitat of the valuable benthic ecosystem, quantifies the contribution of eddy-driven advection to the observed salinity increase and explains the seasonal cycle of watermass variability on the shelf (Chapter 3). However, the multi-year averaged cold pool watermass budget does not capture the intermittency of cross-shelfbreak eddy-fluxes on synoptic timescales. Thus, I demonstrate how individual mooring timeseries can be used to capture the statistical distribution of eddy-driven exchange by assessing cross-shelfbreak eddy-covariance fluxes of salt and heat (Chapter 4). Mean eddy-covariance fluxes align well with previous residual estimates of cross-shelfbreak exchange to close coastal watermass budgets, and just 10-20% of statistically anomalous events are responsible for half the multi-year mean flux. To characterize rapid changes in continental shelf watermass properties over short timescales, I investigate the decline of seasonal stratification due to individual weather events and identify signatures of cross-shelfbreak exchange in wind-driven destratification (Chapter 5). Altogether, this thesis extends our understanding of the characteristics, timing, and magnitude of eddy-driven exchange across the US Northeast shelfbreak front on varying timescales. This information can help to inform how large-scale, long-term trends will impact the US East Coast coastal ocean and its marine ecosystem."],"dc:identifier.doi":["10.1575/1912/71792"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/1912/71792"],"dc:publisher":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution"],"dc:subject":["Shelfbreak exchange","Shelfbreak front","Physical Oceanography"],"dc:title":["Cross-frontal exchange at the US Northeast shelfbreak"],"dc:type":["Thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T22:05:21Z"}