The new PhD student Laurina Oms joined the BIOSWOT-Med group at the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO) to study finescale processes and their impacts on phytoplankton distribution.
Welcome to Laurina OMS, a new PhD student in the Physical Oceanography group at the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO), Marseille, France. Laurina works on the influence of ocean circulation on biological system. In the framework of the BIOSWOT-Med project she will use SWOT satellite observations with the goal to understand the distribution of phytoplankton in the ocean by studying both ecological processes and physical structures at fine scales (1-100 km).
To understand the complex patterns of phytoplankton cells inside water masses, the BIOSWOT-Med campaign will use an adaptative Lagrangian approach combining in situ measurements, satellite observations, and numerical modeling, thus allowing to follow in space and time physical and biological landscapes. Particularly, in situ cytometric analysis give a 3D view of phytoplankton communities distribution and Lagrangian trajectories are computed to identify horizontal and vertical processes associated with fine scale dynamics. Numerical modeling by coupling cytometric and physical data permits to simulate the evolution of phytoplankton communities and to understand the mechanisms that control their distribution.
Before her PhD, Laurina got a Master’s Degree in Marine Sciences, specialization in Physical and Biogeochemical Oceanography, from Aix-Marseille University. During her final year internship, she worked on the influence of fine scales physical structure on phytoplankton distribution in the subsurface layer. Her work focused on the datasets from CALYPSO and PROTEVSMED-SWOT cruises and she studied the difference in influence of fronts and eddies on phytoplankton distribution. Her PhD in the framework of the BIOSWOT-Med project is the continuity of this work.