An Updated View of the Water Masses on the Northeast Greenland Shelf and Their Link to the Laptev Sea and Lena River

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  • E. W. Willcox
  • Bendtsen, Jørgen
  • J. Mortensen
  • C. Mohn
  • M. Lemes
  • T. J. Pedersen
  • J. Holding
  • E. F. Møller
  • M. K. Sejr
  • M.-S. Seidenkrantz
  • S. Rysgaard

The Northeast Greenland shelf is a broad Arctic shelf located between Greenland and Fram Strait. It is the principal gateway for sea ice export and sea ice-associated freshwater from the Arctic Ocean. Sea ice thickness has decreased by 15% per decade since the early 1990s and meteoric freshwater discharge has increased. The consequence of changing sea-ice and freshwater conditions in the region on ocean dynamics and the biological system remains unknown. Determining the source(s) of freshwater is important to be able to understand how the area will react to future upstream change. Here we present a synoptic survey of the Northeast Greenland shelf and slope with observations of hydrography, the nutrients nitrate, phosphate and silicate, and conservative tracers δ18O, δ2H, and total alkalinity during late summer 2017. We compare these to previously published values, including those which identify Pacific and Atlantic water, the Siberian shelf seas, and the six largest Arctic rivers. We show that a major source of freshwater on the Northeast Greenland shelf during late summer 2017 is the Laptev Sea and find no conclusive evidence of Pacific Water. Our observations indicate a direct link between Northeast Greenland hydrology and processes occurring on Eurasian shelves.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummere2022JC019052
TidsskriftJournal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
Vol/bind128
Udgave nummer4
Antal sider16
ISSN2169-9275
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2023

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for providing detailed and relevant feedback and making a positive contribution to this manuscript. The cruises were funded through the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring Program (Leg 1), the Danish Centre for Marine Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Independent Research Fund Denmark (G‐Ice Project) (Grant 7014‐00113B/FNU) (Leg 2). This study received financial support from the Aage V Jensens Foundation, the Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University, and Independent Research Fund Denmark (GreenShelf project (Grant 0135‐00165B/FNU) to MSS). The captain and crew of RV DANA are acknowledged for excellent assistance during our field cruise to NE Greenland. Egon Frandsen is acknowledged for support on logistics and operations.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors.

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