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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Questions and clarity: insights from applying computational methods to paleoclimate archives
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2022-05)It is a scientifically accepted fact that the Earth’s climate is presently undergoing significant changes with the potential for immense negative impacts on human society. As evidence of these impacts become clear and ... -
Barium isotope cycling in the marine environment: pathways of fractionation and implications for paleoceanographic applications
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2022-06)Removal of particulate organic carbon (POC) from sunlit surface waters into the deep ocean represents a climatically important sink of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), linking the biogeochemical cycling of POC to CO2-driven ... -
Assessing the potential for Zn limitation of marine primary production: proteomic characterization of the low Zn stress response in marine diatoms
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2022-05)Marine diatoms are abundant photoautotrophic algae that contribute significantly to photosynthetic carbon fixation and export throughout the oceans. Zinc is an important micronutrient in algal metabolism, with scarce ... -
Molecular characterization of organically bound copper in the marine environment
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2022-05)Marine microbes require copper (Cu) for a variety of key enzymes and can therefore experience limitation when concentrations are low. However, when Cu concentrations are too high, it becomes toxic causing decreased cell ... -
High resolution, in-situ studies of seawater carbonate chemistry and carbon cycling in coastal systems using CHANnelized Optical System II
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2022-05)Study of the marine CO2 system is critical for understanding global carbon cycling and the impacts of changing ocean chemistry on marine ecosystems. This thesis describes the development of a near-continuous, in-situ ... -
Anthropogenic and natural radioisotopes as tracers for contaminant sources and particulate fluxes
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2022-02)Radioactive isotopes act as nuclear clocks that are utilized to trace and measure rates of chemical, biological, physical, and geological oceanographic processes. This thesis seeks to utilize both artificial (e.g., released ... -
Human-autonomy teaming for improved diver navigation
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2022-02)Diving operations are inherently complex due to navigation and communication limitations. Until recently, fixed-beacon acoustic localization techniques have served as the primary means of improving diver navigation. ... -
Constraining natural and anthropogenic disturbances in the delivery of coastal ecosystem services
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2022-02)Coastal ecosystems provide key services that benefit human wellbeing yet are undergoing rapid degradation due to natural and anthropogenic pressures. This thesis seeks to understand how disturbances impact salt marsh and ... -
Trojan horses in the marine realm: characterizing protistan parasite ecology in coastal waters
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2022-02)Protists are taxonomically and metabolically diverse drivers of energy and nutrient flow in the marine environment, with recent research suggesting significant roles in global carbon cycling throughout the water column. ... -
Structure, variability, and dynamics of the West Greenland Boundary Current System
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2022-02)The ventilation of intermediate waters in the Labrador Sea has important implications for the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Boundary current-interior interactions regulate the exchange of ... -
Purification and properties of some fresh water and marine cyanobacteria belonging to the orders Chamaesiphonales and Pleurocapsales
(University of California, Berkeley, 1976)A total of 34 strains of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) representative of the orders Chamaesiphonales and Pieurocapsales were isolated in axenic culture from marine and fresh water sources. Two strains isolated from fresh ... -
Advances in passive acoustic detection, localization, and tracking applied to unmanned underwater vehicles
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2022-02)Detection, classification, localization, and tracking (DCLT) of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) in the presence of shipping traffic is a critical task for passive acoustic harbor security systems. In general, vessels ... -
The effect of attenuation from fish on long-range active and passive acoustic sensing in the ocean
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2022-02)Attenuation from fish can reduce the intensity of acoustic signals and significantly decrease detection range for long-range active and passive sensing in the ocean. This makes it important to understand the relevant ... -
Observing and quantifying kinematic properties and lagrangian coherent structures of ocean flows using drifter experiments
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-09)This thesis analyzes data from two types of unique drifter experiments in order to characterize two aspects of ocean flows that are often difficult to study. First, vertical velocities and their associated transport processes ... -
Reduced order modeling for stochastic prediction and data assimilation onboard autonomous platforms at sea
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-09)There are many significant challenges for unmanned autonomous platforms at sea including predicting the likely scenarios for the ocean environment, quantifying regional uncertainties, and updating forecasts of the evolving ... -
The stratification maxima of the seasonally varying Surface layer in the Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort Gyre
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-09)The Beaufort Gyre region of the Arctic Ocean is strongly stratified at the base of the wintertime mixed layer, which impedes the vertical transport of heat, energy, and other tracers. Ice-Tethered Profiler observations ... -
A metabolic lens on phytoplankton physiology
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-09)Phytoplankton are communities of diverse groups of prokaryotic and eukaryotic single-celled organisms responsible for nearly 50% of global primary production. The relative abundance of individual groups changes dynamically ... -
Investigating chromium cycling in global oxygen deficient zones with chromium isotopes
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-09)Chromium (Cr) isotopes have shown great potential as a paleo-redox proxy to trace the redox conditions of ancient oceans and atmosphere. However, its cycling in modern environments is poorly constrained. In my thesis, I ... -
Characterizing the impact of underwater glider observations on the Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM) in the Gulf Stream Region
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-09)As the western boundary current of the North Atlantic, the Gulf Stream is a well established area of interest for the United States Navy, predominately due to its proximity to the continental shelf and the associated ... -
Environmental effects of the Beaufort Lens on underwater acoustic communications during Arctic operations
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-09)Operations in the Arctic Ocean are increasingly important due to the changing environment and the resulting global implications. These changes range from the availability of new global trade routes, accessibility of newly ...
