海洋学计划的教职员工和学生对河口，沿海和海洋环境中的物理，地质，生物和化学问题进行研究。从历史上看，该计划的重点一直是中大西洋地区的河口，沿海和大陆架研究。我们的研究使附近的特拉华，切萨皮克和德尔马瓦沿海海湾成为世界上研究最广泛的河口。此外，在世界上许多其他地区，教师和学生对与全球环境变化相关的问题也越来越感兴趣。河口水，盐沼和沉积物为微粒物质，微量金属，营养和有机物。在这些对比的环境中，通过对环流，化学，沉积地质学和浮游生物学的研究，形成了一个对比河口行为的综合图景。教师和学生以与古历史循环模式一样大的
Oceanography program faculty and students conduct research on physical, geological, biological and chemical problems in estuarine, coastal and marine environments. Historically, the program's focus has been estuarine, coastaland continental shelf studies in the mid-Atlantic region. Our research studies have made the nearby Delaware, Chesapeake and Delmarva coastal bays some of the most extensively studied estuaries in the world. In addition, faculty and students have had increasing interests in issues related to global environmental change in a number of other regions of the world. Estuarine waters, salt marshes and sediments provide ideal sites for work on the cycling of particulate material, trace metals, nutrients and organic matter. An integrated picture of contrasting estuarine behavior is emerging from studies of circulation, chemistry, sedimentary geology and planktonic biology in these contrasting environments. Faculty and students investigate topics at scales as large as paleohistorical circulation patterns, and as small as chemical cycles in algal mats. Multidisciplinary studies of the hydrology and ecology of intertidal groundwater seepage and the controls of harmful and noxious algal blooms are also explored. Together with the Center for Remote Sensing, faculty and students study the impact of land-use changes on wetlands and estuarine waters and the effects of oceanic circulation on climate. The oceanography program fosters an environment where a diverse faculty and student body work together to understand marine and environmental processes in the interest of solving environmental and societal problems.