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.