Circulation in the coastal ocean and shelf–slope exchange

Humans are strongly affecting the waters of the continental margins by increasing discharges from terrestrial sources and interfering the biogeochemical cycle of CO2. As results of the excess nutrients and other material delivered, pollution and eutrophication are becoming a global environmental problem in shelf seas. Unfortunately, the distribution, residence and flux balance of these terrestrial inputs in the continental margins is an unresolved issue. This lack in our knowledge comes from our poorly understanding in many of the processes that play an important role to the exchanges across the margin boundaries, and more specifically across the shelf-slope interface. The aim of the present work is to estimate the contribution of different physical processes to the exchange of water, solutes and particles across the ocean
boundaries. This goal is achieved combining observations and numerical models in the continental margin of the northwestern Mediterranean.