Katie Brennan
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Department of Oceanography
Dalhousie University
1355 Oxford Street
PO Box 15000
Halifax, NS, B3H 4J1
Room 2613 LSC
Phone +1 (902) 494 3655
Fax +1 (902) 494 3877
E-mail: katie.brennan@dal.ca
Skype:
Education
PhD - Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
MS - Geoscience, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA
BA - Geology and Women's Studies, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA
My Research Interests
I am broadly interested in Earth system dynamics and oceanic responses to climate change - under modern and future climate, and in Earth's past. Presently, the ocean faces significant changes due to global warming, and understanding and potentially predicting those changes over decades to centuries are major scientific challenges. I use climate and ocean models to understand changes in ocean circulation and chemistry.
Past research includes:
(I.) evaluating the impact of varying surface and boundary forcing, grid size and nudging configuration on the circulation of a regional ocean model (in ROMS) in the northwest North Atlantic region (the Atlantic Canada Model), with the goal of selecting the best model configuration to represent present day ocean conditions;
(II.) implementing stable water oxygen isotopes in a coupled climate model, and determining how changes in sea ice could affect seawater oxygen isotope content and thereby affect paleo-reconstructions based on d18O records from high latitude biogenic calcium carbonate;
(III.) investigating whether adding observations of deepwater oxygen at an existing North Atlanic monitoring array at 26N could improve detection of a change in North Atlantic overturning circulation.
As a Post-Doctoral fellow in the Marine Environmental Modelling Group, my goal is to apply numerical models to investigate impacts of 21st century climate change on marine chemistry (oxygen and pH) along much of the eastern coast of Canada. This work is part of the Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response Network (MEOPAR), and will contribute understanding of changes in ocean biogeochemistry.
About Me
I am passionate about environmental and social issues. As a co-chair of the Ecology Action Centre's Marine Action Committee, I work towards increasing the local understanding and appreciation of our oceans through hosting conversations with marine experts and organzing ocean-focused events. I love the outdoors, and am currently exploring as much of Nova Scotia as I can.