Patterns of pollution

John Largier is a professor of coastal oceanography at Bodega Marine Laboratory in California.

Surfers are aware of the danger in rip currents washing them out to sea.  And a sailboat is not much use in a doldrum. We have all had experience with life in a fluid, and from a scientific perspective, the ocean can be a very large study site.

It’s a Lagrangian world out there, or so I keep being told. And in the
moving ocean, things can turn up in the most surprising places, including pollution.  Runoff from land sources into the ocean transports pollution across the land-sea interface, potentially harming marine organisms and damaging sediment processes in the near shore. In the ocean, currents can transport pollutive substances far from their sources. 

On Tuesday, October 21, oceanographer John Largier will visit Dalhousie University to speak on estimating the potential “zone of impact” of land runoff based on the physical oceanographic characteristics (for example, waves and tide) of runoff source regions. In the realm of environmental quality, the zone of impact construct provides an approach for the exposure assessment that is needed in applying risk assessment protocols to coastal pollution.

This lecture is part of the Department of Oceanography’s student-run annual Riley Memorial Lecture Series. All are welcome.