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This web page aims to be a very brief summary of the research carried out by the Sea Level and Climate group of the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB). It is only a cover letter; to find out the details, it will be necessary to go into the research record of the group and extract information from the important contents, such as current or recent research projects, or publications. The results of our research may be of interest not only for the closest scientific community in terms of topic (physical oceanography), but also for researchers working on coastal processes, or on the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems. Beyond the scientific field, our results can be useful for consultants and coastal zone managers.
As the name of the group indicates, our research focuses mainly on sea level variability, which has a significant environmental and socio-economic impact on coastal regions. Currently, the most important risks come from two phenomena associated with climate change: the slow but continuous sea level rise due to global warming; and changes in the nature and distribution of extreme phenomena, mainly due to changes in atmospheric circulation patterns. Obviously, the variability of sea level is linked to other variables, such as temperature (both atmospheric and marine) or winds, and therefore our research includes all the parameters driving the marine climate.
High-frequency phenomena such as meteotsunamis are also the subject of our research, mainly because of the incidence they have in certain places of the Balearic Islands. Going beyond the state of the art in the knowledge of these phenomena is a necessary (though perhaps not sufficient) condition to issue more accurate forecasts, and thus to mitigate as much as possible the damage they cause.
Beyond the physical processes underlying the phenomena that are the focus of our studies, we are also interested in their impacts on coastal areas, especially on the most vulnerable areas such as the beaches. That is why in recent years we have also carried out projects focused on the impacts (physical, ecosystemic and socio-economic) of the described phenomena.
Finally, we want to point out that a significant part of the Sea Level and Climate research is carried out at IMEDEA, a joint centre between UIB and the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) to which some of the group’s members belong. On the other hand, part of the knowledge transfer and dissemination activities are carried out in the Interdisciplinary Laboratory on Climate Change (LINCC-UIB), to which many of the group’s members belong.