Fluvial Sediment Flux to the Arctic Ocean
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Geomorphology 80 (2006) 94–104 www.elsevier.com/locate/geomorph Fluvial sediment flux to the Arctic Ocean V.V. Gordeev P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia Received 1 November 2004; received in revised form 27 September 2005; accepted 27 September 2005 Available online 1 September 2006 Abstract The paper presents an overview of recent publications on the fluvial suspended sediment flux to the Arctic Ocean. The total suspended matter exported from the Russian territory is 102×106 t/year and from the Canadian Arctic is 125×106 t/year. The total suspended matter (TSM) flux to the Arctic (227×106 t/year) is very low, only about 1% of the global flux. Mean concentrations of suspended matter and specific sediment discharge are approximately one order of magnitude lower than the global concentration. An analysis of the trends in the sediment loads based on records of up to 62 years in length shows decreases (Yenisey), increases (Kolyma) and stability (Ob). Among the reasons for the very low concentrations and fluxes of suspended sediment in the Arctic rivers are thin weathering crusts on the Arctic watersheds, low precipitation, extensive permafrost, low temperatures for most of the year, large areas of swamps and lakes and a low level of human activity. A stochastic sediment transport model by Morehead et al. [Morehead, M.D., Syvitski, J.P., Hutton, E.W., Peckham, S.D., 2003. Modeling the temporal variability in the flux of sediment from ungauged river basins. Glob. Planet. Change 39, 95–110] is applied to the Arctic rivers to estimate the sediment load increase should the surface temperature of the drainage basin increase. For every 2 °C of warming a 30% increase in the sediment flux could result and for each 20% increase in water discharge, a 10% increase in sediment load could follow. Based on this model, an increase of the sediment flux of six largest arctic rivers (Yenisey, Lena, Ob, Pechora, Kolyma and Severnaya Dvina) is predicted to range from 30% to 122% by 2100. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Arctic rivers; Suspended sediment; Sediment flux; Temporal variation 1. Introduction important for detecting possible future natural and anthropogenic change (Holmes et al., 2002). Fluxes of water and suspended sediments from arctic Erosion, transport and fluxes of fluvial sediment are rivers to the ocean are àn integrated expression of functions of many factors. Among non-anthropogenic processes occurring in their watersheds. Changes in factors, the most significant are the size of à drainage these fluxes are a reflection of the natural and basin and the largå-scale relief within the basin (Pinet anthropogenic changes in the Arctic. Accurate estimates and Sourian, 1988; Milliman and Syvitski, 1992; of fluvial sediment fluxes in the Arctic are fundamental Harrison, 1994; Syvitski, 2002). Other factors are to an understanding of land–ocean linkages, as well as local relief, climate, precipitation, runoff, basin geology contaminant and nutrient processes. They are also very including the erodibility of the substrate, vegetation, ice cover and lakes, all of these factors have a high correlation with the size of drainage basin or large-scale E-mail address: [email protected]. relief (Fournier, 1960; Douglas, 1967; Ahnert, 1970; 0169-555X/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2005.09.008 V.V. Gordeev / Geomorphology 80 (2006) 94–104 95 Wilson, 1973; Jansen and Painter, 1974; Milliman, The Yukon River (Alaska) which drains into the Pacific 1980; Walling, 1987; Milliman and Syvitski, 1992). Ocean just south of the Bering Straits is also included. In the former Soviet Union, sampling programs to The flow of the Yukon influences the freshwater budget measure Arctic river suspended sediments were begun of the Arctic Ocean. There are several geographical between 1935 and 1966 within the framework of the definitions of the Arctic Ocean boundaries (Prowse and Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Flegg, 2000) not all of which include the Yukon River in Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet). The first the basin of the Arctic Ocean. The definition of the assessments of sediment fluxes appeared in the 1950s Arctic Ocean and its drainage basin used in this paper is (Shamov, 1949, Lopatin, 1952). Subsequently the adopted from the NATO Research Workshop “Arctic suspended sediment studies were carried out by Ocean Freshwater Budget”: the “Arctic Ocean River specialists at the State Hydrological Institute, Leningrad Basin — AORB” (Lewis, 2000). This defines the Arctic (Bobrovitskaya, 1968; Lisitzyna, 1974; Karaushev, Ocean as being bounded by the Russian mainland, a line 1974), the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, across Bering strait, the north coast of Alaska and the Leningrad (Ivanov and Piskun, 1995), the Moscow State northernmost limit of the islands in the Canadian Arctic University (Alabyan et al., 1995; Mikhailov, 1997; Archipelago, then across Kennedy Channel to Peary Magritsky, 2001), the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Ocean- Land, across Svalbard, down to the Nordkapp in ology, Moscow (Lisitzyn, 1972; Gordeev et al., 1996) Norway and back to the Russian coast. The total and others. contributing area for the AORB definition is 15.5× The discharge of water and suspended sediment by l06 km2 with a total mean river discharge of 3299km3/ the largest river of the Canadian Arctic, the Mackenzie year and a range of 3043 to 3546km3/year (Prowse and River, has been monitored by Environment Canada Flegg, 2000). since the early 1970s and nearly all of the published estimates of sediment flux into the delta rely on the 2. River water and sediment fluxes Environment Canada database. Fig. 1 shows the geographical provinces, major river Mean multi-annual river water and suspended matter basins and watershed boundaries in the Arctic Ocean. discharges for the main rivers of the Arctic are shown in Fig. 1. Map of the Arctic Ocean showing river basins and watershed boundaries. Rivers: 1 — Onega, 2 — Severnaya Dvina, 3 — Mezen, 4 — Pechora, 5 — Ob, 6 — Pur, 7 — Taz, 8 — Yenisey, 9 — Pyasina, 10 — Khatanga, 11 — Olenjok, 12 — Lena, 13 — Omoloy, 14 — Yana, 15 — Indigirka, 16 — Alazeya, 17 — Kolyma, 18 — Yukon, 19 — Mackenzie (modified from Carmack, 2000). 96 V.V. Gordeev / Geomorphology 80 (2006) 94–104 Table 1. Data for the Russian Arctic are from the territory is 2932km3, and is 367km3 from the Canadian Roshydromet database for the period 1970–1995. Total Arctic. Mean specific discharge for the Russian Arctic is discharge into the Arctic Ocean from the Russian 7.3l/s·km2 and 5l/s·km2 for the Canadian Arctic, lower Table 1 Total river water and suspended matter discharge into the Arctic Ocean (Gordeev et al., 1996; Holmes et al., 2002; Gordeev and Rachold, 2003) River Area Discharge Total suspended matter 3 2 10 km − − − − − − − km3 m3·s 1 1·s 1·km 2 106 t·y 1 g·m 3 t·km 2·y 1 Barents and White seas Onega 57 15.9 500 8.8 0.3 18 5.2 S. Dvina 357 110 3470 9.7 4.1 37 12.0 Mezen 78 27.2 860 11.0 0.6 33 7.7 Pechora 324 131 4130 12.7 4.4 72 38.0 Other area 570 179 5690 10.0 3.5 19 6.2 Total 1386 463 14,600 10.7 17.9 39 12.9 Kara sea Ob 2545 404 12,760 5.0 15.5 37 6.4 Nadym 64 18 570 8.9 0.4 22 6.2 Pyr 112 34.3 1080 9.8 0.7 18 6.2 Taz 150 44.3 1400 9.5 0.7 21 4.7 Yenisei 2594 620 19,600 7.6 4.7 8 1.9 Pyasina 182 86 2730 15 3.4 39 18.8 Other area 867 275 8690 10.0 5.5 20 6.3 Total 6589 1480 46,830 7.1 30.9 21 4.7 Laptevs sea Khatanga 364 85.3 2700 7.4 1.7 20 4.6 Anabar 100 17.3 550 5.5 0.4 24 4.1 Olenjok 219 32.8 1040 4.7 1.1 38 5.1 Lena 2448 523 16,530 6.7 20.7 39 8.5 Omoloy 39 7 220 5.7 0.04 18 1.0 Yana 225 31.9 1010 4.5 4.0 130 17.8 Other area 197 40.3 1280 6.5 0.65 16 3.3 Total 3592 738 23,330 6.5 28.6 39 8.0 East Siberian sea Indigirka 360 54.2 1710 4.7 11.1 207 30.8 Alazeya 68 1.5 50 4.1 0.1 67 3.4 Kolyma 647 122 3860 6.0 10.1 83 19.0 Other area 252 48.2 1530 6 3.85 80 15.3 Total 1327 233 7380 5.6 25.15 108 19 Chukchi sea without Alaska Amguema 29.6 9.2 290 9.7 0.05 6 1.8 Other area 64.6 11.2 2050 5.5 0.65 58 10 Total 94.2 20.4 2340 6.8 0.7 34 7.4 Eurasian Arctic basin Total 12,987 2932 94,480 7.3 102.2 36 7.9 Chukchi sea (Alaska) and Beaufort sea Kobuk 24.7 –––––– Kuparuk 8.1 –––––– Mackenzie 1787 330 10,430 5.8 124 168 74 Other area 726 37 1170 1.6 1.1 –– Canadian Arctic basin Total 2513 367 11,600 5.0 125.1 – 50 Total Arctic 15,500 3299 106,080 6.8 227.3 68 14.7 V.V. Gordeev / Geomorphology 80 (2006) 94–104 97 than the global mean of 11l/s·km2 (Milliman, 1991).