RSS 1.0WHOI Theses
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WHOI's educational role, at the graduate level, was formalized in 1968 with a change in its charter and the signing of an agreement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a Joint Program leading to doctoral (Ph.D. or Sc.D.) or engineer's degrees. Joint master's degrees are also offered in selected areas of the program. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is also authorized to grant doctoral degrees independently.
New theses are added as they are published.
Recent Submissions
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Diagnosing the variability in temperature and velocity in the Middle Atlantic Bight
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-02)Observations of hydrographic and dynamical properties on the Middle Atlantic Bight shelf document strong variability at time scales spanning events that last a few days to century long trends. This thesis studies individual ... -
A Virtual Ocean framework for environmentally adaptive, embedded acoustic navigation on autonomous underwater vehicles
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-09)Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are an increasingly capable robotic platform, with embedded acoustic sensing to facilitate navigation, communication, and collaboration. The global positioning system (GPS), ubiquitous ... -
Vertical fluxes in the upper ocean
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-09)Oceanic fronts at the mesoscale and submesoscale are associated with enhanced vertical motion, which strengthens their role in global biogeochemical cycling as hotspots of primary production and subduction of carbon from ... -
Field-Portable dissolved gas sensing and perspectives in aqueous microplastic detection
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-06)Global temperature rise and increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have affected the health of the world’s ocean and water ecosystems, impacting the balances of natural carbon cycling and causing ocean acidification. ... -
Barrier island groundwater dynamics
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-06)Nearly 1.5 million people inhabit barrier islands along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coasts and coastal groundwater dynamics influence the availability of freshwater, ecosystem health, pollutant transport, and flooding in ... -
Ambient acoustics as indicator of environmental change in the Beaufort Sea: experiments & methods for analysis
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-06)The Arctic Ocean is a vital component of Earth’s climate system experiencing dramatic environmental changes. The changes are reflected in its underwater ambient soundscape as its origin and propagation are primarily dependent ... -
Pseudo-nitzschia in the Gulf of Maine: investigating bloom dynamics, species introduction, and climate change implications with observations and models
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-01)The apparent global increase in harmful algal blooms (HABs) includes Pseudo-nitzschia blooms in the Gulf of Maine, where shellfishery closures can cost millions of dollars. Temperatures in the gulf are warming, which can ... -
Phosphonate biogeochemical cycling in the marine environment: from an ocean scale to a molecular scale
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-05)The existence of a marine phosphorus (P) redox cycle was recently confirmed when phosphonates, organophosphorus compounds with P in the (III) oxidation state, were found in high molecular weight dissolved organic matter. ... -
Estimating atmospheric boundary layer turbulence in the marine environment using lidar systems with applications for offshore wind energy
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-02)Estimating turbulence in the marine-atmospheric boundary layer is critical to many industrial, commercial and scientific fields, but of particular importance to the wind energy industry. Contributing to both the efficiency ... -
The heterogeneity and volatile content of Earth’s mantle, magmas and crust
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-02)This thesis explores the volatile content of the mantle, subducted oceanic crust, and arc magmas as well as the structure of slow spreading ocean crust and the heterogeneity of Earth’s upper mantle. In Chapter 2, I directly ... -
Structure and mechanics of the subducted Gorda plate: constrained by afterslip simulations and scattered seismic waves
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-02)Subduction zones host the greatest earthquakes on earth and pose great threat to human society. The largest slip in megathrust earthquakes often occurs in the 10–50 km depth range, yet seismic imaging of the material ... -
Coral reefs in the Anthropocene Ocean: novel insights from skeletal proxies of climate change, impacts, and resilience
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-02)Anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are driving rapid changes in ocean conditions. Shallow-water coral reefs are experiencing the brunt of these changes, including intensifying marine heatwaves (MHWs) and rapid ... -
Computational approaches for sub-meter ocean color remote sensing
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-02)The satellite ocean color remote sensing paradigm developed by government space agencies enables the assessment of ocean color products on global scales at kilometer resolutions. A similar paradigm has not yet been developed ... -
The Role of Zooplankton in Regulating Carbon Export and Phytoplankton Community Structure: Integrating Models and Observations
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-02)In this thesis, I explore two topics in plankton ecology with a combination of models and observations. First, I investigate the contribution of zooplankton diel vertical migration (DVM) to the vertical flux of carbon as ... -
Distribution, growth, and transport of larval fishes and implications for population dynamics
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-02)The early life stages of marine fishes play a critical role in population dynamics, largely due to their high abundance, high mortality, and ease of transport in ocean currents. This dissertation demonstrates the value of ... -
Radium isotopes and radon-222 as tracers of sediment-water interaction in Arctic coastal and lacustrine environments
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2020-09)Arctic marine and lacustrine systems are experiencing rapid warming due to climate change. These changes are especially important at the interface between sediments and surface waters because they are hotspots for ... -
A planned approach to high collision risk area
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2020-09)This thesis examines the transition of a vessel from the open ocean, where collisions are rare, to a high risk and heavy traffic area such as a Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS). Previous autonomy approaches generally view ... -
Residual overturning circulation and its connection to Southern Ocean dynamics
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2020-09)Over the last 20 years, our understanding of the meridional overturning circulation has improved, but primarily in a two-dimensional, zonally-averaged framework. In this thesis, I have pushed beyond this simplification and ... -
Development and testing of the AXBT Realtime Editing System (ARES)
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2020-09)Airborne eXpendable BathyThermographs (AXBTs) are air-launched, single use temperature-depth probes that telemeter temperature observations as a VHF-modulated frequency. This study describes the AXBT Realtime Editing System ... -
Morphological approaches to understanding Antarctic Sea ice thickness
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2020-09)Sea ice thickness has long been an under-measured quantity, even in the satellite era. The snow surface elevation, which is far easier to measure, cannot be directly converted into sea ice thickness estimates without ...
