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We present high-resolution, two-and three-dimensional direct numerical simulations of laboratory-scale, fully nonlinear internal solitary waves of elevation shoaling onto and over a small-amplitude shelf. The three-dimensional, mapped coordinate, spectral collocation method used for the simulations allows for accurate modelling of both the shoaling waves and the bottom boundary layer. We focus on wave-induced instabilities during the shoaling and de-shoaling processes. The shoaling of the waves is characterized by the formation of a quasi-trapped core which undergoes a spatially growing stratified shear instability at its edge and a lobe-cleft instability in its nose. Both of these instabilities develop and three-dimensionalize concurrently, leading to strong bottom shear stress. During the deshoaling process, the core breaks up and ejects fluid that forms a vortex-rich region near the down-sloping portion of the shelf. The flow in this region is highly turbulent and the bottom shear stress is extremely strong. Experiments with a corrugated bottom boundary are also performed. Boundary layer separation is found inside each of the corrugations during the wave's shoaling process. Our analyses suggest that all of these wave-induced instabilities can lead to enhanced turbulence in the water column and increased shear stress on the bottom boundary. Through the generation and evolution of these instabilities, the shoaling and de-shoaling cycles of internal solitary waves of elevation are likely to provide systematic mechanisms for material mixing and sediment resuspension. These mechanisms have significant environmental implications on the near-coastal regions of the world's oceans.iii

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The Kitikmeot Sea is a semi-enclosed, east-west waterway in the southern Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA). In the present work, the ice conditions, stratification and circulation of the Kitikmeot Sea are diagnosed using numerical simulations with a 1/12 • resolution. The physical oceanographic conditions of the Kitikmeot Sea are different from channels in the northern CAA due to the existence of a substantial ice-free period each year. The consequences of such ice conditions are twofold. First, through fluctuations of external forcings, such as solar radiation and wind stress, acting directly or indirectly on the sea surface, the seasonal ice coverage leads to significant seasonal variations in both stratification and circulation. Our simulation results suggest that such variations include freshening and deepening of the surface layer, whose salinity can reach as low as 15 psu during the peak runoff season, and significantly stronger along-shore currents driven directly by the wind stress during the ice-free season.The second consequence is that the sea ice is not landfast but can move freely during the melting season. By analyzing the relative importance of thermodynamic (freezing/melting) and dynamic (ice movement) processes to the ice dynamics, our simulation results suggest that there exists a net inflow of sea ice into the Kitikmeot Sea, which melts locally each summer. The movement of sea ice thus provides a significant freshwater pathway, which contributes ∼ 14 km 3 /year of freshwater to the Kitikmeot Sea on average, equivalent to a third of freshwater input from runoff from the land.