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Cruise 54Th of the Research Vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh in the Kara Sea M ISSN 00014370, Oceanology, 2010, Vol. 50, No. 5, pp. 637–642. © Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2010. Original Russian Text © M.V. Flint, 2010, published in Okeanologiya, 2010, Vol. 50, No. 5, pp. 677–682. Cruise 54th of the Research Vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh in the Kara Sea M. V. Flint Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia Email: [email protected] Received December 10, 2009 DOI: 10.1134/S0001437010050012 The modern state of the Arctic Basin and the vari ered characteristic of the vast region located east of ability of this basin are determined to a great extent by Novaya Zemlya. the processes on the shelf and continental slope of the The key role of the Kara Sea in the Arctic ecosys Arctic marginal seas. Annually, the volume of tem is in the fact that it accepts the greatest freshwater 5000 km3 of the rivers’ runoff is transported to the shelf runoff of the rivers in the entire Arctic Basin. Its and continental slope. The rivers’ runoff determines annual volume reaches 1200–1300 km3/yr, 90% of the significant freshening of the Arctic surface waters. which is the runoff of the Ob and Yenisei rivers. The It influences the formation of the seasonal stratifica river runoff into the Kara Sea is more than half of the tion and the circulation pattern in the upper layer of entire runoff of the Siberian Arctic and more than the continental seas. The runoff of the rivers transports onethird of the total freshwater runoff into the Arctic enormous volumes of allochtonous nutrients, sus Basin. It corresponds to more than a one and a half pended mineral and organic substances, and pollu meter layer of freshwater relative to the entire area of tions into the Arctic region. Water of high salinity are the Kara Sea basin, which is almost five times greater formed over the arctic shelf in the autumnal–winter than the total amount relative to the Arctic Ocean and season, which is transported to the central Arctic basin 15 times greater than the amount relative to the World and participate in the formation of the main pycno Ocean on the average. According to the available data, clinehalocline. The volume and form of the alloch the annual freshwater volume needed for the forma tonous material transported to the deep Arctic Basin tion of the salinity field characteristic of the Kara Sea by the runoff of the rivers depends on the processes of is on the average equal to 4200 km3, which is 3.5 times it geochemical and biological transformation in the greater than the annual continental runoff into the estuaries of the rivers and on the shelf, as well as on the basin. Thus, the residence time of the freshwater character of the shelf circulation. It determines the transported into the Kara Sea with the runoff of a spe direction and velocity of the spreading of the riverine cific year can be extended over a few years. All these water and the time of their residence in the continental facts provide evidence about the strong influence of sea; thus, it determines the influence of the climatic the continental runoff on the ecosystem of the Kara and anthropogenic signals contained in the runoff of Sea and indicate the key role of the Kara Sea shelf eco the rivers over the Arctic Basin. The Arctic shelf and system as an interface in the longterm transformation the continental slope are the places where the greatest of the runoff before its further transport into the other proportion of the primary and secondary production shelf and deep regions of the Arctic Basin. The water of the Arctic ecosystem is formed in the pelagic and shed of the Ob and Yenisei rivers is enormous. It is bottom communities. All the aforesaid determine the 6300000 km2 (4.2% of the total land area of the earth). importance of the processes in the marginal Arctic It covers the most developed industrial regions of Western seas for the Arctic ecosystem as a whole. Siberia, which determines the possible anthropogenic The Kara Sea is a boundary basin between the west components in the runoff of these rivers. ern and eastern parts of the Russian Arctic. It is a cru The influence of the continental runoff and the cial transit region for the spreading of the relatively shelf processes on the deep region of the Arctic Basin, warm Barents and Atlantic waters in the eastern and as well as the impact of the adjacent Arctic regions on northeastern directions. On the other hand, according the ecosystem of the Kara Sea, is determined by the to its climatic conditions, the Kara Sea is a typical cross shelf transport processes and the cross shelf zon marginal Arctic Siberian sea, and many processes ality existing in the region. The latitudinal zonality of occurring on the shelf of the Kara Sea can be consid the ecosystem from the estuaries of the Ob and Yenisei 637 638 FLINT °N runoff of the rivers that have not been studied so far. 4984 83 The currents of the Kara Sea are topographically con 5005 85 87 III 86 88 trolled due to their quasibarotropic structure; their 89 cores are localized in the regions with sharp depth 90 76 changes. Thus, the peculiarities of the bottom topog a ly 4967 4991 66 raphy strongly influence the circulation, the hydrolog m 65 5004 03 Ze 64 ical structure, the frontogenesis, and the water a 63 II 02 ay 62 exchange within the basin and with the neighboring ov N 4961 01 basins. The sharpest depth changes in the basin are related to the transition from the inner to the outer 74 shelf (from 50 to 100 m) and with the continental 5000 slope. The core of the Yamal Current (flowing from Kara Sea IV the Kara Gates to the northeast over the shelf) and the 4999 core of the St. Anna Trough Current displaced to the 96 slope of the trough are located in these regions. 97 98 The fronts not only divide the water masses with 95 72 4946 47 I different properties but also limit their mixing and the 48 49 94 5051 60 horizontal matter fluxes. They are frequently the 52 58 5359 56 57 4954 boundaries and regions of the interaction between 55 4993 Yamal Peninsula communities and ecosystems that differ by their com 5006 position and functional properties, as well as zones of increased concentrations and productivity of different 70 biota components. While planning the field research, 55 60 65 70 75 we planned to investigate the possible frontal zones in °E greater detail to provide an understanding of their role Fig. 1. Locations of the main sections and multidisciplinary in the formation of the cross shelf zonality of the Kara stations. (I) Yamal section; (II) Novaya Zemlya section; (III) Sea’s ecosystem and to estimate their possible influ section in the St. Anna Trough; (IV) the Ob section. ence on the interaction processes in the estuary– shelf–continental slope–deep basin system and on the rivers to the deep regions of the basin plays a key role formation of the biological production. in the formation of the hydrophysical and hydrochem The cruise to the Kara Sea lasted from September 5 ical properties of the individual regions of the basin, to October 7, 2007. It is worth emphasizing that the the biotope boundaries, the maintenance of the research was carried out during an anomalously warm hydrochemical and biogeochemical balance, the for year in the Arctic. The area of the ice cover during the mation of the biological production, and the control of northernmost location of the ice edge was the mini the horizontal and vertical fluxes of matter. mum for the past 30 years; its area was 5.32 mln km2, which is 31% less than the average value related to the The hydrological frontal zones and the associated preceding 30year period. In the first half of October, chemical, geochemical, and biological phenomena in the ice boundary at the longitude of the northern end the pelagic area and on the bottom are the most pro of Novaya Zemlya (Cape Zhelaniya) was 370 km north nounced elements of the existing zonality. By the ward and, in the central part of the sea, it was 930 km present time, the only investigated type of the frontal northward of the longterm mean position for this zones in the Kara Sea are the frontal zones in the estu time over the period from 1979 to 2000 [6]. The R/V aries of the Ob and Yenisei rivers [1–5, 7]. They are Akademik Mstislav Keldysh passed trough the Kara related to the marginal filter phenomenon. These Gates Strait on September 9 and did not meet even frontal zones are extremely important for the pro traces of ice. Judging from the satellite data, small ice cesses of the primary transformation of the runoff of fields were observed in the first half of September to the rivers into the sea. The hydrophysical processes, the northnortheast of the Kara Gates. This was also which are the basis of the marginal filter and control its supported by a significant local temperature and salin spatial parameters and variability, as well as the mech ity decrease, which we noticed in the surface layer of anisms determining the specific properties of the the sea in this region. The sea was free of ice over the pelagic ecosystem in the frontal region, are not all entire route of the ship up to its northernmost point understood completely. 76°55′N, 70°16′E.
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