Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © The Oceanography Society, 2015. This article is posted here by permission of The Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 28, no. 3 (2015): 68-83, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2015.58.
Description:
Using data from a number of summer surveys of the Chukchi Sea over the past decade, we investigate aspects in which the benthic fauna, sediment structure, and zooplankton there are related to circulation patterns and shelf hydrographic conditions. A flow speed map is constructed that reveals the major pathways on the shelf. Regions of enhanced flow speed are dictated by lateral constrictions—in particular, Bering Strait and Barrow and Herald Canyons—and by sloping topography near coastlines. For the most part, benthic epifaunal and macrofaunal suspension feeders are found in high flow regimes, while deposit feeders are located in regions of weaker flow. The major exceptions are in Bering Strait, where benthic sampling was underrepresented, and in Herald Canyon where the pattern is inexplicably reversed. Sediment grain size is also largely consistent with variations in flow speed on the shelf. Data from three biophysical surveys of the Chukchi Sea, carried out as part of the Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic program, reveal close relationships between the water masses and the zooplankton communities on the shelf. Variations in atmospheric forcing, particularly wind, during the three sampling periods caused significant changes in the lateral and vertical distributions of the summer and winter water masses. These water mass changes, in turn, were reflected in the amounts and species of zooplankton observed throughout the shelf in each survey. Our study highlights the close relationship between physical drivers (wind forcing, water masses, circulation, and sediment type) in the Chukchi Sea and the biological signals in the benthos and the plankton on a variety of time scales.
Description:
MP, RP, and CA were supported by Cooperative
Agreement NA17RJ1223 between the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
and the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Ocean
Research (CICOR) and Cooperative Agreements
NA09OAR4320129 and NA14OAR4320158 between
NOAA and the Cooperative Institute for the North
Atlantic Region. This publication is the result in part of
research sponsored by the Cooperative Institute for
Alaska Research with funds from NOAA under cooperative
agreements NA17RJ1224, NA13OAR4320056,
and NA08OAR4320870 with the University of Alaska.
KNK and EAE received financial support from the
Russian Foundation for Basic Research under Grant
13-04-00551 and Russian Scientific Foundation
Grant No. 14-50-00095. JG and LC received financial
support from the NOAA Arctic Office (2004:
NOAA-CIFAR 10-067; 2004, 2005, 2009 and 2012:
NA08OAR4310608), along with NOAA Cooperative
Agreement #NA09OAR4320129: WHOI CINAR
#19930.00 UMCES.
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/pdf
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