Sea Spray and Icing in the Emerging Open Water of the Arctic Ocean

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar L. Andreas
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Open Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Sea Spray ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

Changes in phytoplankton concentration now drive increased Arctic Ocean primary production

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 369 (6500) ◽  
pp. 198-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. Lewis ◽  
G. L. van Dijken ◽  
K. R. Arrigo
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Water Area ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Carbon Export ◽  
Phytoplankton Primary Production ◽  
Open Water Area ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

Historically, sea ice loss in the Arctic Ocean has promoted increased phytoplankton primary production because of the greater open water area and a longer growing season. However, debate remains about whether primary production will continue to rise should sea ice decline further. Using an ocean color algorithm parameterized for the Arctic Ocean, we show that primary production increased by 57% between 1998 and 2018. Surprisingly, whereas increases were due to widespread sea ice loss during the first decade, the subsequent rise in primary production was driven primarily by increased phytoplankton biomass, which was likely sustained by an influx of new nutrients. This suggests a future Arctic Ocean that can support higher trophic-level production and additional carbon export.

Growth of Wave Height with Retreating Ice Cover in the Arctic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changlong Guan ◽  
Jingkai Li
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Surface Waves ◽  
Wave Height ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Wave Climate ◽  
Least Square ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Wave Heights

<p>For the Arctic surface waves, one of the most uncontroversial viewpoints is that their escalation in the past few years is mainly caused by the ice extent reduction. Ice retreat enlarges the open water area, i.e., the effective fetch, and thus allows more wind input energy and available distance for wave evolution. This knowledge has been supported by a few previous studies on the Arctic waves which analyzed the correlation between time-series variations in wave height and ice coverage. However, from the perspective of space, the detailed relationship between retreating ice cover and increasing surface waves is not well studied. Hence, we performed such a study for the whole Arctic and its subregions, which will be helpful for a better understanding of the wave climate and for forecasting waves in the Arctic Ocean.</p><p>Wave data are produced by twelve-year (2007-2018) hindcasts of summer melt seasons (May-Sept.) and numerical tests with WAVEWATCH III. When a viscoelastic wave-ice model and a spherical multiple-cell grid are applied, simulated wave heights agree with available buoy data and previous research. After the validations, simulated significant wave heights over twelve-year summer melt seasons are used to demonstrate the detailed relationship between the escalation of wave height and reduction of ice extent for the whole Arctic and seven subregions. Through least square regression, we find that the mean wave height in the Arctic Ocean will increase by 0.071m (10<sup>6</sup>km<sup>2</sup>)<sup>-1</sup> when the ice extent is smaller than 9.4×10<sup>6</sup>km<sup>2</sup>, and roughly 51% is contributed by the enlarged fetch. By analyzing the nondimensional wave energy and comparing the simulated wave height with Wilson IV, we prove the swell is widespread during the summertime in the current Arctic Ocean. Furthermore, we also display the variations in probabilities of occurrence of large waves as ice-edge retreats in seven subregions. Assuming that an ice free period occurs in the Arctic in September, the model results show that the simulated mean wave height is approximately 1.6m and the large waves occur much more frequently, which mean that the growth rate of wave height will be higher if the minimum ice extent keeps reducing in the future.</p>

Seasonal methane and carbon dioxide emissions from the coastal nearshore of the Kolyma river, Siberia.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juri Palmtag ◽  
Cara Manning ◽  
Michael Bedington ◽  
Matthias Fuchs ◽  
Mathias Göckede ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Open Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Nearshore Zone ◽  
Terrestrial Organic Matter ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Kolyma River

<p>Arctic rivers deliver ≈11% of global river discharge into the Arctic Ocean, while this ocean represents only ≈1% of the global ocean volume. Ongoing climate warming across the Arctic, and specifically Siberia, has led to regional-scale changes in precipitation patterns, greater rates of permafrost thaw and active layer deepening, as well as enhanced riverbank and coastal erosion. Combined, these climatic and cryospheric perturbations have already resulted in increased freshwater discharge and changes to constituent loads (e.g. dissolved organic carbon - OC) supplied from land to the Arctic Ocean.</p><p>To date, the majority of studies examining terrestrial organic matter (OM) delivery to the Arctic Ocean have focused almost entirely on freshwater (riverine) or fully-marine environments and been conducted during late summer seasons – often due to logistical constraints. Despite this, an improved understanding of how OC is transformed, mineralised and released during transit through the highly reactive nearshore estuarine environment is critical for examining the fate and influence of terrestrial OM on the Arctic Ocean. Capturing seasonality over the open water period is also necessary to identify current OM fluxes to the ocean vs the atmosphere, and aid in constraining how future changes may modify them.</p><p>Here we focus upon carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) and methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) measurements collected during six repeated transects of the Kolyma River and nearshore zone (covering ~120 km) from 2019. Transects spanned almost the entirety of the riverine open water season (June to September). We use these results, in parallel with gas concentrations derived from prior studies, to develop and validate a simple box-model of gas emissions from the nearshore zone.</p><p>Observations and model‐derived output data reveal that more than 50% of the cumulative gross delivery of CH<sub>4</sub> and CO<sub>2</sub> to the coastal ocean occurred during the freshet period with dissolved CH<sub>4</sub> concentrations in surface water reaching 660 Nanomole per liter [nmol/l]. These results demonstrate the relevance of seasonal dynamics and its spatial variability which are needed in order to estimate greenhouse gas fluxes on an annual basis.</p><p>More accurate understanding of land-ocean carbon fluxes in the Arctic is therefore crucial to mitigate the effects of climate change and to support the decisions of policy makers.</p>

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