Diatom flux reflects water-mass conditions on the southern Northwind Abyssal Plain, Arctic Ocean.

We studied time-series fluxes of diatom particles and their relationship to hydrographic variations from 4 October 2010 through 18 September 2012 using bottom-tethered sediment trap moorings deployed at Station NAP (75° N, 162° W; 1975 m water depth) in the western Arctic Ocean. We observed clear maxima of the diatom valve flux in November-December of both 2010 and 2011, and in August 2011. Diatoms in samples were categorized into 98 taxa. The diatom flux maxima were characterized by many resting spores in November-December and by the sea ice-associated diatom Fossula arctica in August 2011. These assemblages along with abundant clay minerals in the samples suggest a significant influence of shelf-origin materials transported by mesoscale eddies, which developed along the Chukchi Sea shelf break. In contrast, the fluxes of total mass and diatoms were reduced in summer 2012. We hypothesize that this suppression reflects the influx of oligotrophic water originating from the central Canada Basin. A physical oceanographic model demonstrated that oligotrophic surface water from the Beaufort Gyre was supplied to Station NAP from December 2011 to early half of 2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]