Western Arctic Shelf-Basin Interactions - SBI: Mesoscal Nutrient Structures in the Northern Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in Several Seasons

Bigelow Laboratory For Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay ME

Investigators

Abstract

ABSTRACT OCE-0125313 The study will use a series of aircraft flights out onto Artic ice fields in the SBI work areas during March and April of years 2003 and 2004 to obtain hydrographic, nutrient and other chemical tracer distributions representative of end-winter - early spring conditions of the underlying water column. These late winter samples will be used to complement additional Shelf Basin Initiative (SBI) cruise hydrography in this region. Hydrography (temperature, salinity, density) will be profiled from the ice surface to 250m or the sea floor depending on water depth. Additional samples will be taken for nutrients, d 18O and possibly dissolved inorganic carbon parameters. The study areas will include transects out from Point Barrow (Alaska) to 1650 W, a transect across the shelf-slope break at 1540 W, and a transect across the shelf break at 1510 W, along the location of a current meter mooring line which is deployed as part of the larger SBI experiment.