PhD Studentship: Paleo-modelling of the Red Sea

This is a 3.5 year PhD Studentship  which will cover fees and stipend set at the UKRI rate (£18,622 in 2023/24). This project is open to UK residents and EU residents who have settled status or pre-settled status.

The successful candidate will have a good degree in mathematics, physics, engineering, environmental sciences, or similar, with good understanding of fluid mechanics and mathematical models of physical systems.

The project is suited to someone with strong mathematical and modelling skills, interested in developing their understanding of oceanographic flows and biogeochemical processes.

The Red Sea is a semi-enclosed basin, with limited connections to the open ocean, with narrow and shallow straits operating a strong control on exchanges between the Red Sea and the wider ocean.  Currently the Red Sea is dominated by evaporation, leading to saline conditions, with dense saline waters descending into the deep water and keeping the deeper waters oxygenated.  However, the Red Sea has experienced changes in sea level, atmospheric forcing (winds, precipitation), insolation, and tectonic changes in basin configuration and sill geometry, leading to different circulation patterns.

Evidence of past climates can be obtained from drill cores, showing, for example, periods of organic-rich layer formation, indicating the deep waters were relatively stagnant and de-oxygenated for periods in the past, as well as giving information about past salinities and temperatures.  This in turn will have resulted from different forcing and/or topography.  The interpretation of the geological record requires an understanding of the relation between the record and the basin conditions.

You will work in an interdisciplinary team, including paleoceanographers from Earth & Environmental Sciences, who investigate and interpret the geological record, and fluid dynamicists from the Department of Fluids and Environment, expert in numerical and mathematical modelling of ocean flows and processes. The project will focus on developing mathematical models capturing the key physical and biogeochemical processes in the past, present and future Red Sea, in order to identify the key parameters that control the observed geological record.  The modelling will include mathematical models of multi-layer hydraulic control at straits, simple box models representing fluxes of heat and salt; models representing geochemical processes that lead to sedimentation and deoxygenation; and numerical models of wind-driven circulation and eddy formation.  Combining the improved representation of oceanic processes with information from the geological record will enable us to improve our understanding of past and future climates and impacts.

We strongly recommend that you contact the supervisor(s) for this project before you apply; The Email addresses for Dr Gregory Lane-Serff, Dr Neil Mitchell and Dr David Apsley are Gregory.F.Lane-Serff @manchester.ac.uk, Neil.Mitchell@manchester.ac.uk and David.apsley@manchester.ac.uk

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