REMINDER: OSM 2026 Session CP001- Buoyancy-driven flows in estuaries and continental shelves
Sam Kastner
Hello Coastal List,
We invite you to submit an abstract to the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting buoyancy-driven flows session. The abstract submission deadline is 8/20, 23:59 EDT. Here is the submission link.
Though we realize that conference travel may be hard right now due to funding constraints and international travel concerns, we’re looking forward to seeing you this February in Glasgow. Session details can be found below.
Best,
Sam Kastner
Steve Dykstra
Sam Lewin
Agata Piffer Braga
Session Title: Buoyancy-driven flows in estuaries and continental shelves
Session Description:
Relatively low density, buoyant water can be introduced to estuaries and continental shelves via numerous mechanisms: river discharges, ice melt, wastewater outflows, rainfall, and/or radiational heating. Transport and mixing due to buoyant flows within these coastal environments directly impacts a number of physical and biogeochemical processes critical to coastal ecosystems, communities, and larger scale ocean circulation and climate patterns. Vertical and horizontal density gradients initiate baroclinic circulation over a range of spatial and temporal scales that drive the transportation of sediments, nutrients, pollutants, oxygen, and other tracers. Winds, tides, surface and internal waves, bathymetry, ice, and man-made structures can interact with buoyant flows to further complicate hydrodynamics. Proper management of coastal regions requires an in-depth understanding of buoyancy-driven flows, as does predictive forecasting of how estuaries and continental shelves may respond to future adjustments in dynamics driven by climate and anthropogenic change. We welcome submissions to this session which explore buoyancy-driven flows within estuaries and the continental shelf over a range of scales using and synthesizing numerical, observational, laboratory, remote sensing, and theoretical techniques. Of particular relevance are processes in river plumes and estuaries, turbulence and mixing, and/or human and climate induced alterations to baroclinic hydrodynamics in the coastal zone.