| Oceanic transport is strongly associated with Coherent Structures like fronts, eddies or filaments. Lagrangian methods are optimal tools for their identification and analysis. An important Lagrangian technique is that of Finite-Size Lyapunov Exponents (FSLES), which was originally introduced by Angelo Vulpiani and collaborators in order to analyze non-asymptotic dispersion processes, and that has become a very important tool to identify Coherent Structures in turbulent flows. In this talk I will focus on FSLEs as quantifiers of marine coherent structures, discussing their reliability and their ability to characterize three-dimensional dynamics. I will also present some results about the influence of coherent structures on marine ecosystems. |