Exploring the Diverse Dynamics of the World's Coastal Seas

"Exploring the Diverse Dynamics of the World's Coastal Seas" as title for the 2025 Gordon Conference on Coastal Ocean Dynamics emphasizes the enormous diversity of coastal oceans around the globe. This diversity is evident in physical factors such as climate forcings, tides, bathymetry, morphology, and latitude such that the same physical principles lead to system dynamics varying fundamentally between locations. Moreover, anthropogenic factors such as coastal protection, onshore and offshore structures, and pollution have a substantial impact on coastal ocean function. Changing climate forcings — such as unusual wind forcing, river discharge, or heat waves — lead not only to increased risks of flooding and drought but to major changes in coastal systems that can have implications beyond the continental shelf. Hazards such as storm surges also have different physical drivers and impacts around the world. Coastal research to date has predominantly highlighted mid-latitude coastal seas. However, the specifics of those regions may bias our general understanding of the coastal ocean. To account for the diversity of physical dynamics of coastal seas, meeting sessions will include high-, mid- and low-latitude coastal regions. Presentations on all coastal physical oceanographic topics are welcome, including less studied coastal regions, the global coast concept, coastal hazards, physical-biogeochemical interactions, and ocean-coastal seas interactions. The 2025 Gordon Research Conference on Coastal Ocean Dynamics will be supplemented by a Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) to be held on the weekend prior to the GRC. The Gordon Research Seminar is a meeting of graduate student researchers and postdoctoral scientists working on coastal ocean dynamics and provides them with an opportunity to present and discuss work with their peers.