Dr Juliane Wihsgott

Juliane Wihsgott is a physical oceanographer specialising in observational approaches to understanding how ocean physics shapes marine ecosystems and climate‑relevant processes. Her research spans shelf seas to open ocean systems across temperate, tropical and polar environments, with a particular focus on turbulence, mixing and air-sea exchange, and their role in structuring ecosystem variability and response to environmental change.

She has over 15 years of sea‑going experience and is an expert in the use of marine autonomous platforms, including ocean gliders, AUVs and USVs. Juliane designs and leads observational strategies to resolve coupled physical and biogeochemical processes across scales, addressing emerging challenges such as ocean resilience to human‑induced change, extreme events, and ocean‑based climate interventions.

Juliane provides scientific leadership across large, multi‑partner programmes, leading work packages and shaping the observational components of major funding proposals. Her work integrates marine autonomy with advanced data workflows and AI‑enabled analytical approaches to deliver scalable, high‑resolution observing systems at programme level.

Her research focuses on how physical structure and variability in the ocean govern ecosystem function in a changing environment. She is active across both environmental research and defence‑aligned marine autonomy, using her expertise in observational system design to drive programme development and play a central role in the development and capture of research funding.

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Key Projects

2026 – present: Task Lead, OAeSIS (Horizon Europe)
Leading PML observational activities for UK fieldwork to develop process‑based understanding of ocean‑based climate interventions and their impact on air–sea gas exchange.

2025–present: Task Lead, C‑FLOOR (NERC Highlight Topic)
Leading AUV‑based observations to quantify how seabed trawling alters the carbonate system, including impacts on turbulent mixing and air–sea exchange.

2025–present: EQUIFy Work Package Lead (NERC–The Crown Estate; ECOFlow programme)
Leading research to quantify ecosystem‑scale impacts of floating offshore wind infrastructure and develop marine autonomy‑enabled approaches for environmental monitoring and assessment.

2024–2025: SyncED-Ocean Work Package Lead, (NERC-Met Office)
Actively shaped the development of marine digital twin capability through coordinated multi‑vehicle deployments and AI‑assisted command and control approaches.

2022–2025: PELAgIO co-Investigator (NERC–The Crown Estate; ECOWind programme)
Physics‑to‑ecosystem assessment of offshore wind farm impacts.

2018-2022: PDRA SOLSTICE-WIO (NERC-GCRF)

2013-2017: Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry (SSB) – CANDYFLOSS, (NERC-Defra)

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Selected Publications

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