Collaborative Research: Submarine Groundwater and Freshwater Inputs Along the Western Antarctic Peninsula

East Carolina University, Greenville NC

Investigators

Abstract

Studies throughout the globe indicate that the seaward transport of groundwater to the coast may play a significant role in the contribution of nutrient, micronutrient (e.g. Fe), carbon and other geochemical budgets of nearshore waters. The corresponding situation in Antarctica is likely to be similar, but is largely unstudied. The objective of this project is to quantify the rate of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) and its associated fluxes of nutrients and iron to coastal Antarctic waters. The size of this discharge of the flux of re-circulated seawater and the subsurface glacial freshwater flow component, compared with the collocated surface inputs of freshwater sources, including melting glacial and sea-ice will be determined using a suit of chemical, isotopic and radiochemical tracers. Current scenarios of the primary production of the waters offshore of Palmer Station and down-current of the Western Antarctic Peninsula suggest that limiting amounts of micronutrient iron, and other nutrients, are augmented by several continentally derived sources. The contribution of SGD dissolved Fe in this region is to date unknown, yet may be a significant component of the geochemical budgets of these productive coastal waters. Cross shelf mixing rates of Fe and nutrients will be estimated to better constrain the importance of SGD.