Marine science is an inherently interdisciplinary field of study and many research programs encompass aspects of physics, chemistry, biology and geology. Models are useful tools that help marine scientists integrate these different aspects to examine ideas of how particular systems work. Models can also be used to study effects over a range of spatial and temporal scales, thereby supplementing field studies and helping understand the spatio-temporal heterogeneity in marine systems.

At UGA Marine Sciences, modelers work closely with field and laboratory scientists around the world on a wide variety of projects and in many marine environments. These include studies of processes important in coastal regions (e.g., seagrass growth, larval transport, benthic-pelagic coupling, turbulence, surface wave propagation) and the open ocean (e.g., formation of marine snow, flow instabilities, and western boundary currents). Modelers also work at a variety of scales, from regional physical and biological models, centimeter scales (turbulence and sediment processes), and sub-micron scales.

Adrian Burd
the interrelationship of biological, physical and chemical processes in marine systems.

A simulated sea grass canopy used to estimate photosynthesis and self-shading within a seagrass bed

Daniela DiIorio
the cycle of turbulence and ocean mixing in estuarine systems that are driven by tidal, buoyancy and wind forcing; the propagation of surface gravity waves and their interactions with currents and ebb shoaling regions.

Christof Meile

coupling of reaction and transport processes, biogeochemical cycling across scales, e.g.:

^ pore scale analysis and upscaling artificial porous media	^ spatial heterogeneity and benthic exchange fluxes sediment burrow structures	^ physical drivers and elemental cycling saltwater intrusion

Charles Tilburg
River plume dynamics, coastal upwelling, across-shelf mass exchange, surface layer mixing, and larval transport.

^ Salinity from a regional model of the Mid-Atlantic Bight showing the Delaware River Plume

^ Modeled pathway of a blue crab larva off the coast of Delaware