Exploring Down Under:  Will Schroeder Helps Survey the Western Australian Coast

Download PDF of Article
 
From November 2000 to the end of 2001, Dr. Will Schroeder has been participating in research cruises aboard the R/V Franklin to help conduct a first-ever survey of the physical and biological linkages along the west coast of Australia.

An international and interdisciplinary team of scientists and students has been collecting data on temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, fluorescence and more. The several key physical features of the western Australian coast they have been investigating include:


• The summer circulation pattern along the continental shelf between Shark Bay and North-West Cape.

• Interaction between the northward coastal current and the southward Leeuwin Current at the coastal promontory at Point Cloates.

• Processes controlling the exchange of water between Shark Bay and the continental shelf, including the fate of high salinity outflow from Shark Bay.

Dr. Schroeder will present the results of this survey at a conference in Argentina in the Fall of 2001. For more information about this research cruise, check out its Web site at http://www.cwr.uwa.edu.au/~pattiara/franklin00/.