Overview of the research activity

The Sea Level and Climate research team

The core of the Sea level and Climate research team is formed by members of the Physics Department of the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB, http://dfs.uib.es/), scientists from the Department of Oceanography and Global Change of IMEDEA (http://imedea.uib-csic.es/department.php?d=29&lang=en) and scientists from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO, http://www.ieo.es/baleares). Namely, the permanent nucleus of the team is formed by: Dr. Damià. Gomis (Full Professor and PI of the team), Dr. Sebastià Monserrat (Full Professor), Dr. Marta Marcos (Lecturer) and Dr. Gabriel Jordà (Research Scientist at IEO). Non-permanent members of team are presently: Drs. Javier Soto-Navarro and Dr. Angel Amores (postdoctoral researchers), and Mrs. Alejandra Rodríguez and Mr. Miguel Agulles (Pre-doctoral researchers). The team also includes scientists not belonging to UIB, which are listed as 'external collaborators' in the complete list given at http://www.uib.eu/en/research/groups/grup/NIVELLMA/equip/index.html.

Summary of the Research Activity

The research activity of the team focuses on the three main research lines outlined above in this document:

1. Long-term (interannual to interdecadal) Sea Level variability and Climate. The main objectives of this line are:

1a) To understand the observed long-term sea level variability, particularly in the Mediterranean Sea. We pay particular attention to explain the observed variability in terms of the different processes contributing to sea level (the atmospheric component, the steric component and the mass component).

1b) To obtain and analyse regional marine climate scenarios for the 21st century. The projected variables are temperature, salinity, currents, sea level and waves. The research not only focuses on projecting changes in the mean values, but also in the distribution of extremes.

1c) Study different impacts of climate change on the marine environment, e.g., the impact of sea level rise and wave changes on lowland shores and coastal infrastructures; the impact of marine heat waves on seagrass meadows and on demersal fish populations.

2. High-frequency Sea Level Oscillations: meteotsunamis or meteorological tsunamis are atmospherically induced ocean waves in the tsunami frequency band. These destructive waves are not related to any seismic activity, volcanic explosions, submarine landslides or meteorite impacts, but to atmospheric gravity waves, atmospheric fronts, tropical cyclones, and, generally to any processes generating atmospheric pressure oscillations. The main objective of this line is to improve the knowledge on the generation and propagation of meteotsunamis and on their amplification when approaching and hitting the shoreline.

3. Ocean dynamics: diagnostic studies of physical processes and their relation with biological processes. The team has experience on spatial objective analysis applied to the diagnosis of mesoscale dynamics, in particular on the relationship of the latter with biogeochemical processes.

International projection of the research team

The Sea level and Climate research team is a reference at national and international level, particularly regarding sea level and Mediterranean climate studies. The records that support this statement (detailed in other sections of this document) are:

· The involvement in many international projects.

· The participation in several international steering committees and scientific teams.

· The international co-authorship of the publications of the team (more than 2/3 of the SCI papers published by the team are written in collaboration with scientists from other countries).

- The active participation in international Conferences (less than 10% of the contributions to Conferences are made at the national level).