International Workshop on Western Boundary Current – Subtropical Continental Shelf Interactions

An illustration of two orange gears with white circular arrows inside, set against a blue background with green and blue curved shapes. The image has a white border.May 22-24, 2023
Savannah, Ga.

In the major ocean basins, energetic western boundary currents (WBC) adjacent to subtropical continental shelves (STCS) interact strongly with their continental margins, resulting in first order consequences for adjacent shelf circulation, biogeochemistry and ecosystem response. Comparative analysis of the physical forcing and biogeochemical/ecological ramifications among the different ocean/shelf settings has the potential to reveal common and contrasting underlying properties of shelf ecosystems and their sensitivity to climatic perturbations in ways that fragmented attention to individual system’s properties cannot.

The overall goal of the WBC-STCS workshop was to convene a globally diverse group of researchers to discuss the state of knowledge of WBC-STCS ecosystems and to identify strategies for coordinating observational and research objectives to advance understanding of these dynamic regions. Because of the 2020-2022+ pandemic, the Workshop had several components:

• A November 2020 virtual program of regional overviews and discussions

• A May 2023 in-person three-day program in Savannah, GA.

• Post-workshop material

All of the 2020 and 2023 workshop activities have been recorded and are now available online.

The 2023 in-person workshop program

Summary of 2023 workshop conclusions (peer-reviewed article in Oceanography)

Access the 2023 workshop presentations, posters, and discussions.

Abstracts from the Western Boundary Current-Continental Shelf Interactions sessions at the 2022 Ocean Sciences Meeting

View a workshop summary poster presented at the 2023 Coastal Ocean Dynamics Gordon Conference by D Savidge.

View a workshop report by Joana Julieta Gonzalez Rejon.

View presentations at the 2024 Ocean Sciences Meeting in New Orleans

View an announcement of an upcoming issue of Oceanography guest edited by Moninya Roughan, Ilson da Silveira and Tamaryn Morris.

Discussions from the 2020 Virtual Pre-Workshop

Questions/comments may be directed to William.Savidge@skio.uga.edu.

Workshop Steering Committee

William Savidge – Univ. of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, USA
Dana Savidge – Univ. of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, USA
Iain Suthers – University of New South Wales, Australia
Moninya Roughan – University of New South Wales
Xinyu Guo – Ehime University, Japan
Ilson da Silveira – University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Frederico Brandini – University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Dezhou Yang – Chinese Academy of Sciences, PRC

Sponsors

WERA Ocean Remote Sensing logo featuring the word WERA in bold blue letters, with three curved blue lines above it, and the words Ocean Remote Sensing below in smaller blue text. Sea-Bird Scientific logo featuring a dark blue droplet shape with smaller light blue circles forming a partial ring, and the company name in dark blue and light blue text to the right. SECOORA logo with a stylized ocean wave and the text: “SECOORA Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association.”.
The University of Georgia logo featuring a black arch with 1785 in white on a red shield, next to the words University of Georgia in black and red text on a light background. Teledyne Marine logo with a blue geometric icon and the text TELEDYNE MARINE in black and Everywhere you look in blue. The logo of the National Science Foundation features a blue globe with white continents, the letters NSF in bold white font, and a gold gear-like border surrounding the globe.