Long term observations of physical and biological variability in the central and eastern North Pacific show large-amplitude fluctuations on decadal timescales that are unrelated with the well-known changes in the sea surface temperatures and the El Niño Southern Oscillation. By combining these observations with numerical models that simulate the ocean circulation and the ecosystem dynamics, I will present evidence of a new emerging pattern of Pacific climate variability termed the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation. This new pattern will provide the basis for an improved and unified view of the Pacific climate dynamics teleconnections and of the mechanisms linking physical climate variability to the marine ecosystem response.

Dr. Di Lorenzo earned a B.S. from the University of Bologna, Italy and a Ph.D. from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He was a postdoctoral researcher with the University of California Los Angeles and the University of California San Diego. He is currently an associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Di Lorenzo's research interests include: (1) large-scale dynamics of climate variability and change, (2) regional climate dynamics of the coastal ocean and marine ecosystems, and (3) ocean predictability, inverse ocean dynamics and data assimilation.

Innovation Research Park Building I 4111 Monarch Way, 3rd Floor Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA 23508 757-683-4940