Higher Degree by Research Application Portal

The oceans have absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat from radiative forcing caused by excess atmospheric CO₂, leading to both an ocean warming trend and short-term extreme events, called marine heatwaves. For example, during the sum­mer of 2024-25, the Ningaloo Coast and the adjacent conti­nental shelf to the north experienced a severe marine heatwave that resulted in widespread coral bleaching and signif­icant fish mortality. The severity of this event was substantially underestimated by seasonal forecasts. As with most marine heatwaves, large-scale climate drivers initiated the event, however, the spatial variability in extreme sea temperature was governed by localised oceanic processes. There is an urgent need to plan and adapt for increasingly prevalent, high-risk marine heat­wave events in the coastal ocean, but we require reliable prediction of the physical processes that control the transport of heat at fine scales. These predictions will help identify both regions at high risk as well as thermal refugia.

In this project, you will quantify heat transport off the Ningaloo Coast- the world’s largest fringing coral reef and a UN World Heritage site - which is linked to the deep ocean by a narrow continental shelf. Here warming ocean temperatures can be countered by processes such as breaking internal waves, air-sea heat transport, transient upwelling and eddies. The relative importance of each source of cooling is unknown. You will participate in a 35-day voyage off the Ningaloo Coast on the RV Investigator in March-April 2026 where we will take new observations that you will use to quantify the rates of heating and cooling driven by different ocean and atmospheric processes to inform management decisions at Ningaloo.

Prof. Nicole Jones

nicole.jones@uwa.edu.au

Skills in physical oceanography and/or environmental fluid mechanics, and programming capability.
Willingness to undertake a 35-day voyage.
The capability to work in a team and independently and to take initiative.

The research will be based at the Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre (School of Earth and Oceans and UWA Ocean Institute https://www.uwa.edu.au/oceans-institute) at the University of Western Australia (Perth, Australia) within a dynamic team of students and researchers specialising in physical oceanography, machine learning and statistics.

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is a program of independent, supervised research that is assessed solely on the basis of a thesis, sometimes including a creative work component, that is examined externally. The work presented for a PhD must be a substantial and original contribution to scholarship, demonstrating mastery of the subject of interest as well as an advance in that field of knowledge. 

Visit the course webpage for full details of this course including admission requirements, course rules and the relevant CRICOS code/s.