Search

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2020. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 125(1), (2020): e2019JG005414, doi:10.1029/2019JG005414., A survey of 25 coastal‐draining rivers across the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) shows that these systems are distinct from the largest Arctic rivers that drain watersheds extending far south of the Arctic circle. Observations collected from 2014 to 2016 illustrate the influences of seasonal hydrology, bedrock geology, and landscape physiography on each river's inorganic geochemical characteristics. Summertime data show the impact of coincident gradients in lake cover and surficial geology on river geochemical signatures. In the north and central CAA, drainage basins are generally smaller, underlain by sedimentary bedrock, and their hydrology is driven by seasonal precipitation pulses that undergo little modification before they enter the coastal ocean. In the southern CAA, a high density of lakes stores water longer within the terrestrial system, permitting more modification of water isotope and geochemical characteristics. Annual time‐series observations from two CAA rivers reveal that their concentration‐discharge relationships differ compared with those of the largest Arctic rivers, suggesting that future projections of dissolved ion fluxes from CAA rivers to the Arctic Ocean may not be reliably made based on compositions of the largest Arctic rivers alone, and that rivers draining the CAA region will likely follow different trajectories of change under a warming climate. Understanding how these small, coastal‐draining river systems will respond to climate change is essential to fully evaluate the impact of changing freshwater inputs to the Arctic marine system., This work was only possible through a network of enthusiastic and devoted collaborators. Partners included Polar Knowledge Canada and the Canadian High Arctic Research Station, the Arctic Research Foundation, the Kugluktuk Angoniatit Association, and the Canadian Arctic GEOTRACES Program. We acknowledge support from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Coastal Ocean Institute, The G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation, Jane and James Orr, and the Woods Hole Research Center. Many thanks go to Austin Maniyogena, Angulalik Pedersen, Adrian Schimnowski, JS Moore, Les Harris, Oksana Schimnowski, as well as Barbara Adjun, Amanda Dumond, and Johnny Nivingalok, and the captains and crew of the research vessels CCGS Amundsen and R/V Martin Bergmann, all of whom supported our research and helped with sample collection. Special thanks also go to Valier Galy, Zhaohui “Aleck” Wang, Marty Davelaar, Michiyo Yamamoto‐Kawai, Hugh McLean, Mike Dempsey, Baba Pedersen, Maureen Soon, Katherine Hoering, Sean Sylva, Ekaterina Bulygina, and Anya Suslova for their invaluable contributions during field program planning, preparations, and laboratory analyses. Robert Max Holmes is thanked for many fruitful discussions. We also thank several anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the paper's content and structure. All of the data presented in this paper can be found at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.908497.

A 15-year (2004–2018) record of mooring observations from the upper 50 m of the ocean in the eastern Eurasian Basin reveals increased current speeds and vertical shear, associated with an increasing coupling between wind, ice, and the upper ocean over 2004–2018, particularly in summer. Substantial increases in current speeds and shears in the upper 50 m are dominated by a two times amplification of currents in the semidiurnal band, which includes tides and wind-forced near-inertial oscillations. For the first time the strengthened upper ocean currents and shear are observed to coincide with weakening stratification. This coupling links the Atlantic Water heat to the sea ice, a consequence of which would be reducing regional sea ice volume. These results point to a new positive feedback mechanism in which reduced sea ice extent facilitates more energetic inertial oscillations and associated upper-ocean shear, thus leading to enhanced ventilation of the Atlantic Water.

Continental slopes – steep regions between the shelf break and abyssal ocean – play key roles in the climatology and ecology of the Arctic Ocean. Here, through review and synthesis, we find that the narrow slope regions contribute to ecosystem functioning disproportionately to the size of the habitat area (∼6% of total Arctic Ocean area). Driven by inflows of sub-Arctic waters and steered by topography, boundary currents transport boreal properties and particle loads from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans along-slope, thus creating both along and cross-slope connectivity gradients in water mass properties and biomass. Drainage of dense, saline shelf water and material within these, and contributions of river and meltwater also shape the characteristics of the slope domain. These and other properties led us to distinguish upper and lower slope domains; the upper slope (shelf break to ∼800 m) is characterized by stronger currents, warmer sub-surface temperatures, and higher biomass across several trophic levels (especially near inflow areas). In contrast, the lower slope has slower-moving currents, is cooler, and exhibits lower vertical carbon flux and biomass. Distinct zonation of zooplankton, benthic and fish communities result from these differences. Slopes display varying levels of system connectivity: (1) along-slope through property and material transport in boundary currents, (2) cross-slope through upwelling of warm and nutrient rich water and down-welling of dense water and organic rich matter, and (3) vertically through shear and mixing. Slope dynamics also generate separating functions through (1) along-slope and across-slope fronts concentrating biological activity, and (2) vertical gradients in the water column and at the seafloor that maintain distinct physical structure and community turnover. At the upper slope, climatic change is manifested in sea-ice retreat, increased heat and mass transport by sub-Arctic inflows, surface warming, and altered vertical

The Eurasian Basin (EB) of the Arctic Ocean is subject to substantial seasonality. We here use data collected between 2013 and 2015 from six moorings across the continental slope in the eastern EB and identify three domains, each with its own unique seasonal cycle: 1) The upper ocean (<100 m), with seasonal temperature and salinity differences of Δθ = 0.16°C and ΔS = 0.17, is chiefly driven by the seasonal sea ice cycle. 2) The upper-slope domain is characterized by the influence of a hydrographic front that spans the water column around the ~750-m isobath. The domain features a strong temperature and moderate salinity seasonality (Δθ = 1.4°C; ΔS = 0.06), which is traceable down to ~600-m depth. Probable cause of this signal is a combination of along-slope advection of signals by the Arctic Circumpolar Boundary Current, local wind-driven upwelling, and a cross-slope shift of the front. 3) The lower-slope domain, located offshore of the front, with seasonality in temperature and salinity mainly confined to the halocline (Δθ = 0.83°C; ΔS = 0.11; ~100–200 m). This seasonal cycle can be explained by a vertical isopycnal displacement (ΔZ ~ 36 m), arguably as a baroclinic response to sea level changes. Available long-term oceanographic records indicate a recent amplification of the seasonal cycle within the halocline layer, possibly associated with the erosion of the halocline. This reduces the halocline’s ability to isolate the ocean surface layer and sea ice from the underlying Atlantic Water heat with direct implications for the evolution of Arctic sea ice cover and climate.