Currently I am working on the following research projects
Indonesian Seas and Indonesian Throughflow: control mechanisms and impact of climate change
In my capacity at the National Oceanography Centre I am working on understanding the mechanisms that control the circulation and hydrography in the Indonesian Seas and how they respond to climate change. Particularly, I focus on: (i) the effect of tides in the regional water mass transformation, flow patterns and freshwater pathways, and in the Indonesian throughflow from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean; (ii) the response of these processes to climate change; and (iii) the effect of these evolving processes under climate change on the biogeochemical cycles in the Indonesian Seas.
For this project, in collaboration with the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, I have set-up a regional model for the South East Asia (SEAsia) based on the coupled NEMO/ERSEM hydrodynamic/ecosystem framework. Using this model I conduct several experiments, including sensitivity to tidal forcing, downscaling of climate projections in the Indonesian Seas based on the RCP 8.5 emissions scenario, and realistic high resolution (~3 Km) simulations. This project is part of Addressing Challenges of Coastal Communities through Ocean Research for Developing Economies (ACCORD)
Control of climate response to carbon emissions by ocean heat uptake, ocean carbon uptake and climate feedbacks
In my capacity at the University of Liverpool I investigate how different processes and feedback mechanisms, like changes in ocean circulation, ocean biology, carbonate chemistry and clouds, control the regional response to carbon emissions on different Ocean basins. My focus is on: (i) the regional asymmetries in ocean heat and carbon anomalies driven by the effect of changes in the ocean circulation; (ii) the relative contribution of the diffent basins to the carbon cycle feedbacks and the different mechanisms that dominate these feedbacks in the different basins; and (iii) the climate feedbacks and specifically the connection between changes in clouds and enhancement/weakening in ocean heat anomalies.
To investigate this ocean basin-wide response to carbon emissions I use conceptual climate models, sensitivity experiments with realistic climate models and future projections from the latest generation Earth system models (i.e, CMIP6). This project is funded by the standard NERC grant “Asymmetries in ocean heat and carbon uptake, and effects on marine hazards” led by Prof. Ric Williams, to which I am a Researcher Co-Investigator.
Ocean carbon uptake and carbon cycle feedbacks in the Southern Ocean
I also investigate the ocean carbon uptake relationship with water mass transformation in the Southern Ocean, and the effect of the Southern Ocean on the global carbon cycle feedbacks. For this project I work in close collaboration with the “Southern Ocean carbon indices and metrics” (SARDINE) programme, which is part of a large scale effort to understand the role of the Southern Ocean in the Earth System (ROSES)