Dylan Schlichting
Graduate Student
Coastal/Estuarine Oceanography, Spurious Mixing, Submesoscale Processes
Research
I am a Ph.D. candidate that uses numerical modeling to study small-scale mixing processes over the Texas-Louisiana (TXLA) continental shelf in the northern Gulf of Mexico. My dissertation focuses on characterizing numerical mixing in realistic and idealized simulations of the TXLA shelf. Numerical mixing is a type of error that arises in ocean circulation models due to the discretization of seawater transport. This work is important because numerical mixing is often similar in magnitude to the resolved turbulent mixing in estuarine and coastal models, which can cause them to drift away from reality if left unchecked. This is because estuaries and the coastal ocean contain energetic fronts and sharp property gradients that are difficult for models to resolve. I am also interested in understanding how small-scale (submesoscale) ocean processes affect the larger-scale structure of the coastal ocean.Selected Publications
3. Schlichting, D., Qu, L., Kobashi, D, and Hetland, R. D. (2023). Quantification of physical and numerical mixing in a coastal ocean model using salinity variance budgets. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 15, e2022MS003380. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022MS003380.
2. Qu, L., Hetland, R., and Schlichting, D. Mixing pathways in simple box models. Journal of Physical Oceanography. https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-22-0074.1.
1. Spicer, P., Schlichting, D., Huguenard, K., Roche, A., and Rickard, L., 2021. Sensing Storm Surge: A framework for establishing a citizen scientist monitored water level network. Ocean and Coastal Management, 211, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2021.105802.
Presentations and Conferences
9. Schlichting, D., Qu, L., Hetland, R., and Kobashi, D. (2022). Quantification of physical and numerical mixing using tracer variance dissipation in a coastal ocean model. Gordon Research Seminar/Conference on Ocean Mixing. South Hadley, MA. June 4-10. Poster.
8. Hetland, R., Qu, L., and Schlichting, D. (2022). Tracer variance mixing in simple box models. Ocean Sciences Meeting. February 24 - March 4. Talk.
7. Schlichting, D., Qu, L., Hetland, R., and Kobashi, D. (2022). Using salinity variance budgets to quantify numerical mixing in a coastal ocean model. Ocean Sciences Meeting. February 24 - March 4. Talk.
6. Schlichting, D., Hetland, R., Qu, L., and Kobashi, D. (2021). Using tracer variance budgets to quantify numerical mixing offline in a coastal ocean model. Warnemünde Turbulence Days Meeting. December 6-9. Talk.
5. Schlichting, D., Lieberthal, B., and Huguenard, K. (2019). An assessment into vegetation farms as a solution to coastal erosion in southern Maine. Northeast Aquaculture Conference, Boston MA. January 9-11. Poster.
4. Schlichting, D. and Hetland, R. (2018). Using salinity variance and total exchange flow to analyze salinity structure in an unsteady estuary. Physics of Estuaries and Coastal Seas Conference, Galveston, TX. October 14-18. Poster.
3. Schlichting, D. and Hetland, R. (2018). Mechanisms controlling salinity structure in a broad, shallow, unsteady estuary. Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture Network Undergraduate Research Symposium. Walpole ME. August 7. Poster.
2. Schlichting, D. and Hetland, R. (2018). Salinity structure in Copano Bay. Texas A&M University. Observing the Ocean REU Student Symposium. College Station, TX. August 2. Talk.
1. Schlichting, D., Lieberthal, B., and Huguenard, K. (2017). Vegetation farms as a solution to coastal erosion for Saco, Maine. Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture Network Undergraduate Research Symposium. Walpole ME. August 16. Poster.
Education
Ph.D. Oceanography, Texas A&M University, 2020-Present.
B.S. Civil Engineering, University of Maine, 2019.
Minor: Mathematics
Awards
- Louis & Elizabeth Scherck Scholarship (2020-Present)
- NSF S-STEM Scholar (Jan 2020 - Aug 2021)
- OCNG Mini-grant Recipient (X3, 2020-2021)
- NSF Observing the Ocean REU: Texas A&M University (2018)
