UC San Diego

This dissertation consists of three distinct contributions in the field of Applied Ocean Science. These contributions are not directly related, and each serve as a stand-alone scientific work. As such, the dissertation is written and formatted as three independent chapters. These are titled `Wave-slope soaring of the brown pelican' (published in Movement Ecology, 2020), `A generalized slab model' (submitted to Journal of Physical Oceanography and in review), and `Near-inertial wave generation in a linear, damped mixed layer model' (in preparation for submission to Journal of Physical Oceanography).