Given a certain kind of submanifold $Y$ of a symplectic manifold $(X,\omega)$ we can form its coisotropic reduction as follows. The null directions of $\omega|_Y$ define the characteristic foliation $F$ on $Y$. The space of leaves $Y/F$ then admits a symplectic form, descended from $\omega|_Y$. Locally, the coisotropic reduction $Y/F$ looks just like a symplectic quotient. This construction also work for holomorphic symplectic manifolds, though one of the main difficulties in practice is ensuring that the leaves of the foliation are compact. We will describe a criterion for compactness, and apply coisotropic reduction to produce a classification result for Lagrangian fibrations by Jacobians.

In 1970, two independent studies (by Wunsch and Phillips) of the behaviour of a linear density-stratified viscous fluid in a closed container demonstrated a slow flow can be generated simply due to the container having a sloping boundary surface This remarkable motion is generated as a result of the curvature of the lines of constant density near any sloping surface, which in turn enables a zero normal-flux condition on the density to be satisfied along that boundary. When the Rayleigh number is large (or equivalently Wunsch's parameter $R$ is small) this motion is concentrated in the near vicinity of the sloping surface, in a thin `buoyancy layer' that has many similarities to an Ekman layer in a rotating fluid.

A number of studies have since considered the consequences of this type of `diffusively-driven' flow in a semi-infinite domain, including in the deep ocean and with turbulent effects included. More recently, Page & Johnson (2008) described a steady linear theory for the broader-scale mass recirculation in a closed container and demonstrated that, unlike in previous studies, it is possible for the buoyancy layer to entrain fluid from that recirculation. That work has since been extended (Page & Johnson, 2009) to the nonlinear regime of the problem and some of the similarities to and differences from the linear case will be described in this talk. Simple and elegant analytical solutions in the limit as $R \to 0$ still exist in some situations, and they will be compared with numerical simulations in a tilted square container at small values of $R$. Further work on both the unsteady flow properties and the flow for other geometrical configurations will also be described.