Oceanographic Features of the Canadian Archipelago

1957 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 731-769 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. B. Bailey
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Beaufort Sea ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Temperature Structure ◽  
Vertical Temperature ◽  
Baffin Bay ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
North Water ◽  
Ice Floes

Oceanographic data collected during the first cruise of H.M.C.S. Labrador to the Canadian Arctic in August and September 1954 permit comparisons of the vertical temperature and salinity structures in Baffin Bay, the Canadian Archipelago and the Arctic Ocean. From a comparison of the temperature–salinity characteristics of the waters in the Arctic Ocean (Beaufort Sea) with those in Baffin Bay, it is found that: (a) the surface waters of the Arctic Ocean are much less saline than those in Baffin Bay, but minimum temperatures are the same (−1.8 °C), (b) the waters of the upper 200 m. in Baffin Bay are denser than those found at corresponding depths in the Arctic Ocean, (c) below 200 m., Arctic waters are the denser, and below 500 m. they are denser than any waters found in Baffin Bay, and (d) waters found at 250 m. in the Beaufort Sea, at 500 m. in Smith Sound, and at 1250 m. in central Baffin Bay, have identical temperature and salinity characteristics (−0.3 °C., 34.4‰).In addition the data permitted limited investigations into the effect of drifting ice floes on the vertical temperature structure of the water, the origin of the "north water", long-term variations in the oceanographic conditions in Baffin Bay, and dynamic calculations of currents and volume transports of the waters through the channels leading into Baffin Bay.

Hydrographic Changes in Nares Strait (Canadian Arctic Archipelago) in Recent Decades Based on δ18O Profiles of Bivalve Shells

ARCTIC ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta E. Torres ◽  
Daniela Zima ◽  
Kelly K. Falkner ◽  
Robie W. Macdonald ◽  
Mary O'Brien ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Depth Range ◽  
Baffin Bay ◽  
Nares Strait ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Oxygen Isotopic ◽  
Bivalve Shells

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Nares Strait is one of three main passages of the Canadian Archipelago that channel relatively fresh seawater from the Arctic Ocean through Baffin Bay to the Labrador Sea. Oxygen isotopic profiles along the growth axis of bivalve shells, collected live over the 5 – 30 m depth range from the Greenland and Ellesmere Island sides of the strait, were used to reconstruct changes in the hydrography of the region over the past century. The variability in oxygen isotope ratios is mainly attributed to variations in salinity and suggests that the northern end of Nares Strait has been experiencing an increase in freshwater runoff since the mid 1980s. The recent changes are most pronounced at the northern end of the strait and diminish toward the south, a pattern consistent with proximity to the apparently freshening Arctic Ocean source in the north and mixing with Baffin Bay waters as the water progresses southward. This increasing freshwater signal may reflect changes in circulation and ice formation that favor an increased flow of relatively fresh waters from the Arctic Ocean into Nares Strait. </span>

scholarly journals Holocene polynya dynamics and their interaction with oceanic heat transport in northernmost Baffin Bay

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Jackson ◽  
Anna Bang Kvorning ◽  
Audrey Limoges ◽  
Eleanor Georgiadis ◽  
Steffen M. Olsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Baffin Bay ◽  
The North ◽  
North Water ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ocean Conditions

AbstractBaffin Bay hosts the largest and most productive of the Arctic polynyas: the North Water (NOW). Despite its significance and active role in water mass formation, the history of the NOW beyond the observational era remains poorly known. We reconcile the previously unassessed relationship between long-term NOW dynamics and ocean conditions by applying a multiproxy approach to two marine sediment cores from the region that, together, span the Holocene. Declining influence of Atlantic Water in the NOW is coeval with regional records that indicate the inception of a strong and recurrent polynya from ~ 4400 yrs BP, in line with Neoglacial cooling. During warmer Holocene intervals such as the Roman Warm Period, a weaker NOW is evident, and its reduced capacity to influence bottom ocean conditions facilitated northward penetration of Atlantic Water. Future warming in the Arctic may have negative consequences for this vital biological oasis, with the potential knock-on effect of warm water penetration further north and intensified melt of the marine-terminating glaciers that flank the coast of northwest Greenland.

Increasing Multiyear Sea Ice Loss in the Beaufort Sea: A New Export Pathway for the Diminishing Multiyear Ice Cover of the Arctic Ocean

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gareth Babb ◽  
Ryan J. Galley ◽  
Stephen E. L. Howell ◽  
Jack Christopher Landy ◽  
Julienne Christine Stroeve ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Beaufort Sea ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Export Pathway ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Multiyear Ice

Danian Mollusks from the Prince Creek Formation, Northern Alaska, and Implications for Arctic Ocean Paleogeography

1993 ◽  
Vol 67 (S35) ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louie Marincovich
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The North ◽  
The World ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Molluscan Fauna ◽  
Endemic Genera ◽  
Northern Alaska

The marine molluscan fauna of the Prince Creek Formation near Ocean Point, northern Alaska, is of Danian age. It is the only diverse and abundant Danian molluscan fauna known from the Arctic Ocean realm, and is the first evidence for an indigenous Paleocene shallow-water biota within a discrete Arctic Ocean Basin faunal province.A high percentage of endemic species, and two endemic genera, emphasize the degree to which the Arctic Ocean was geographically isolated from the world ocean during the earliest Tertiary. Many of the well-preserved Ocean Point mollusks, however, also occur in Danian faunas of the North American Western Interior, the Canadian Arctic Islands, Svalbard, and northwestern Europe, and are the basis for relating this Arctic Ocean fauna to that of the Danian world ocean.The Arctic Ocean was a Danian refugium for some genera that became extinct elsewhere during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. At the same time, this nearly landlocked ocean fostered the evolution of new taxa that later in the Paleogene migrated into the world ocean by way of the northeastern Atlantic. The first Cenozoic occurrences are reported for the bivalves Integricardium (Integricardium), Oxytoma (Hypoxytoma), Placunopsis, Tancredia (Tancredia), and Tellinimera, and the oldest Cenozoic records given for the bivalves Gari (Garum), Neilo, and Yoldia (Cnesterium). Among the 25 species in the molluscan fauna are four new gastropod species, Amauropsis fetteri, Ellipsoscapha sohli, Mathilda (Fimbriatella) amundseni, and Polinices (Euspira) repenningi, two new bivalve genera, Arcticlam and Mytilon, and 15 new bivalve species, Arcticlam nanseni, Corbula (Caryocorbula) betsyae, Crenella kannoi, Cyrtodaria katieae, Gari (Garum) brouwersae, Integricardium (Integricardium) keenae, Mytilon theresae, Neilo gryci, Nucula (Nucula) micheleae, Nuculana (Jupiteria) moriyai, Oxytoma (Hypoxytoma) hargrovei, Placunopsis rothi, Tancredia (Tancredia) slavichi, Tellinimera kauffmani, and Yoldia (Cnesterium) gladenkovi.

scholarly journals Carbon cycling in the Arctic Archipelago: the export of Pacific carbon to the North Atlantic

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 971-994 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. H. Shadwick ◽  
T. Papakyriakou ◽  
A. E. F. Prowe ◽  
D. Leong ◽  
S. A. Moore ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Carbon ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Co2 Uptake ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
The North Atlantic

Abstract. The Arctic Ocean is expected to be disproportionately sensitive to climatic changes, and is thought to be an area where such changes might be detected. The Arctic hydrological cycle is influenced by: runoff and precipitation, sea ice formation/melting, and the inflow of saline waters from Bering and Fram Straits and the Barents Sea Shelf. Pacific water is recognizable as intermediate salinity water, with high concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), flowing from the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic via the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. We present DIC data from an east-west section through the Archipelago, as part of the Canadian International Polar Year initiatives. The fractions of Pacific and Arctic Ocean waters leaving the Archipelago and entering Baffin Bay, and subsequently the North Atlantic, are computed. The eastward transport of carbon from the Pacific, via the Arctic, to the North Atlantic is estimated. Altered mixing ratios of Pacific and freshwater in the Arctic Ocean have been recorded in recent decades. Any climatically driven alterations in the composition of waters leaving the Arctic Archipelago may have implications for anthropogenic CO2 uptake, and hence ocean acidification, in the subpolar and temperate North Atlantic.

scholarly journals A 50 % increase in the mass of terrestrial particles delivered by the Mackenzie River into the Beaufort Sea (Canadian Arctic Ocean) over the last 10 years

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 3551-3565 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Doxaran ◽  
E. Devred ◽  
M. Babin
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Suspended Solids ◽  
Beaufort Sea ◽  
Freshwater Discharge ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Field Observations ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Arctic Rivers ◽  
Mackenzie River

Abstract. Global warming has a significant impact on the regional scale on the Arctic Ocean and surrounding coastal zones (i.e., Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway and Russia). The recent increase in air temperature has resulted in increased precipitation along the drainage basins of Arctic rivers. It has also directly impacted land and seawater temperatures with the consequence of melting permafrost and sea ice. An increase in freshwater discharge by main Arctic rivers has been clearly identified in time series of field observations. The freshwater discharge of the Mackenzie River has increased by 25% since 2003. This may have increased the mobilization and transport of various dissolved and particulate substances, including organic carbon, as well as their export to the ocean. The release from land to the ocean of such organic material, which has been sequestered in a frozen state since the Last Glacial Maximum, may significantly impact the Arctic Ocean carbon cycle as well as marine ecosystems. In this study we use 11 years of ocean color satellite data and field observations collected in 2009 to estimate the mass of terrestrial suspended solids and particulate organic carbon delivered by the Mackenzie River into the Beaufort Sea (Arctic Ocean). Our results show that during the summer period, the concentration of suspended solids at the river mouth, in the delta zone and in the river plume has increased by 46, 71 and 33%, respectively, since 2003. Combined with the variations observed in the freshwater discharge, this corresponds to a more than 50% increase in the particulate (terrestrial suspended particles and organic carbon) export from the Mackenzie River into the Beaufort Sea.

scholarly journals Interpretation of Slar Imagery of Sea Ice in Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean

1975 ◽  
Vol 15 (73) ◽  
pp. 193-213
Author(s):  
Moira Dunbar
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
North Pole ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Canadian Forces ◽  
Nares Strait ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ice Edge ◽  
Airborne Sensors

AbstractSLAR imagery of Nares Strait was obtained on three flights carried out in. January, March, and August of 1973 by Canadian Forces Maritime Proving and Evaluation Unit in an Argus aircraft equipped with a Motorola APS-94D SLAR; the March flight also covered two lines in the Arctic Ocean, from Alert 10 the North Pole and from the Pole down the long. 4ºE. meridian to the ice edge at about lat. 80º N. No observations on the ground were possible, but -some back-up was available on all flights from visual observations recorded in the air, and on the March flight from infrared line-scan and vertical photography.The interpretation of ice features from the SLAR imagery is discussed, and the conclusion reached that in spite of certain ambiguities the technique has great potential which will increase with improving resolution, Extent of coverage per distance flown and independence of light and cloud conditions make it unique among airborne sensors.

scholarly journals The Seasonal Variability of the Arctic Ocean Ekman Transport and Its Role in the Mixed Layer Heat and Salt Fluxes

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (20) ◽  
pp. 5366-5387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiayan Yang
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Mixed Layer ◽  
Seasonal Variability ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Beaufort Sea ◽  
Ekman Transport ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Ekman Pumping ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

Abstract The oceanic Ekman transport and pumping are among the most important parameters in studying the ocean general circulation and its variability. Upwelling due to the Ekman transport divergence has been identified as a leading mechanism for the seasonal to interannual variability of the upper-ocean heat content in many parts of the World Ocean, especially along coasts and the equator. Meanwhile, the Ekman pumping is the primary mechanism that drives basin-scale circulations in subtropical and subpolar oceans. In those ice-free oceans, the Ekman transport and pumping rate are calculated using the surface wind stress. In the ice-covered Arctic Ocean, the surface momentum flux comes from both air–water and ice–water stresses. The data required to compute these stresses are now available from satellite and buoy observations. But no basin-scale calculation of the Ekman transport in the Arctic Ocean has been done to date. In this study, a suite of satellite and buoy observations of ice motion, ice concentration, surface wind, etc., will be used to calculate the daily Ekman transport over the whole Arctic Ocean from 1978 to 2003 on a 25-km resolution. The seasonal variability and its relationship to the surface forcing fields will be examined. Meanwhile, the contribution of the Ekman transport to the seasonal fluxes of heat and salt to the Arctic Ocean mixed layer will be discussed. It was found that the greatest seasonal variations of Ekman transports of heat and salt occur in the southern Beaufort Sea in the fall and early winter when a strong anticyclonic wind and ice motion are present. The Ekman pumping velocity in the interior Beaufort Sea reaches as high as 10 cm day−1 in November while coastal upwelling is even stronger. The contributions of the Ekman transport to the heat and salt flux in the mixed layer are also considerable in the region.

scholarly journals Effects of Vertical Water Mass Segregation on Bacterial Community Structure in the Beaufort Sea

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 385
Author(s):  
Yunyun Fu ◽  
Richard B. Rivkin ◽  
Andrew S. Lang
Keyword(s):  
Bacterial Community ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
Water Mass ◽  
Beaufort Sea ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Mass Segregation

The Arctic Ocean is one of the least well-studied marine microbial ecosystems. Its low-temperature and low-salinity conditions are expected to result in distinct bacterial communities, in comparison to lower latitude oceans. However, this is an ocean currently in flux, with climate change exerting pronounced effects on sea-ice coverage and freshwater inputs. How such changes will affect this ecosystem are poorly constrained. In this study, we characterized the bacterial community compositions at different depths in both coastal, freshwater-influenced, and pelagic, sea-ice-covered locations in the Beaufort Sea in the western Canadian Arctic Ocean. The environmental factors controlling the bacterial community composition and diversity were investigated. Alphaproteobacteria dominated the bacterial communities in samples from all depths and stations. The Pelagibacterales and Rhodobacterales groups were the predominant taxonomic representatives within the Alphaproteobacteria. Bacterial communities in coastal and offshore samples differed significantly, and vertical water mass segregation was the controlling factor of community composition among the offshore samples, regardless of the taxonomic level considered. These data provide an important baseline view of the bacterial community in this ocean system that will be of value for future studies investigating possible changes in the Arctic Ocean in response to global change and/or anthropogenic disturbance.

scholarly journals The Mass Balance of the Sea Ice of the Arctic Ocean

1973 ◽  
Vol 12 (65) ◽  
pp. 173-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Koerner
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ablation Rate ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
First Year ◽  
The North ◽  
Ice Accumulation ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ridged Ice ◽  
Ice Production

AbstractFrom data taken on the British Trans-Arctic Expedition it is calculated that 9% of the Arctic Ocean surface between the North Pole and Spitsbergen was hummocked or ridged ice, 17% was unridged ice less than a year old, 73% was unridged old ice and 0.6% was ice-free. The mode of 250 thickness measurements taken through level areas of old floes along the entire traverse lies between 2.25 and 2.75 m. The mean end-of-winter thickness of the ice is calculated to be 4.6 m in the Pacific Gyral and 3.9 m in the Trans-Polar Drift Stream. From measurements of the percentage coverage and thickness of the various ice forms, it is calculated that the total annual ice accumulation in the Arctic Ocean is equivalent to a continuous layer of ice 1.1 m thick. 47% of this accumulation occurs in ice-free areas and under ice less than 1 year old. 20% of the total ice production is either directly or indirectly related to ridging or hummocking. An ice-ablation rate of 500 kg m−2 measured on a level area of a multi-year floe is compared with the rate on deformed and ponded ice. Greatest melting occurs on new hummocks and least on old smooth hummocks. The annual balance of ice older than 1 year but younger than multi-year ice is calculated from a knowledge of ice-drift patterns and the percentage coverage of first-year ice. The same calculations give a mean-maximum drift period of 5 years for ice in the Trans-Polar Drift Stream and 16 years in the Pacific Gyral. It is calculated that for the period February 1968 to May 1969 the annual ice export was 5 580 km3.

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