The paper deals with the dynamics of an isolated vortex that evolves in a time-dependent strain environment. We establish parameters leading to parametric instability of stationary steady-state configuration using a combination of analytical and numerical techniques. Our findings may contribute to a deeper understanding of the coherent vortex dynamics in the ocean.

Aquifers offer the possibility of exploiting geothermal energy. Especially in fractured aquifers, in order to increase the optimal efficiency of installations which use groundwater as a geothermal resource, flow and heat transport dynamics need to be well understood. This study is aimed at deepening the understanding of this topic through heat transport experiments in fractured networks and their interpretation.

Extreme water waves impacting ships and offshore structures can not only cause severe structural damage, but also threaten the safety of passengers and crew. Accordingly, the motivation for the present work is to better understand the dynamics of extreme waves in two cases: the case of "green water" and the case of "freak waves". Our methodology can simulate those two events in order to estimate the forces of such extreme waves and thus aid engineers in the design of safer maritime structures.

We have re-examined the classical geostrophic adjustment problem, where a disturbance of a density stratification is released from rest in a rotating frame of reference, from a numerical point of view. This has enabled us to consider the governing equations without approximations. We show that both the waves generated and the remaining state exhibit nonlinear effects. Due to advances in available computational power, we can now revisit classical problems and solve them completely.

Melon crop got different levels of N that constituted a contribution to the variation of soil N at mainly larger scales. During its development a proportion of the N was taken up, adding a second factor of variability at smaller scales. After the melon harvest, the wheat was sown across the plots and harvested at the end of the season. Wheat was used as a N sink crop and allowed us to evaluate the soil N residual. Multiscale and relative entropy were applied to study N scale dependencies.

Transport of subtropical waters in the Japan Sea is simulated based on altimeter data. Preferred transport pathways across the Subpolar Front are found. The cross-frontal transport is shown to be inhomogeneous with gates and barriers whose locations are determined by a local velocity field. The gates open due to suitable dispositions of mesoscale eddies facilitating propagation of subtropical waters to the north. There are forbidden zones where the northward transport has not been observed.

When the initial perturbation is large or the prediction time is long, the strong nonlinearity of the dynamical model on the prediction variable will lead to failure of the ADJ-CNOP method; when the objective function has multiple extreme values, ADJ-CNOP has a large probability of producing local CNOPs, hence making false estimations of the lower bound of maximum predictable time.

Deforestation and subsequent land uses in the Brazilian Amazon have huge impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, local climate and biodiversity. To better understand these land-cover changes, we apply complex systems methods uncovering spatial patterns in regional transition probabilities between land-cover types, which we estimate using maps derived from satellite imagery. The results show clusters of similar land-cover dynamics and thus complement studies at the local scale.