Publication Date:
2014-11-17
Description:
Large-scale patterns of net community production (NCP) were estimated during the late summer
cruise ARK-XXVI/3 (TransArc, August/September 2011) to the central Arctic Ocean. Several approaches were
used based on the following: (i) continuous measurements of surface water oxygen to argon ratios (O2/Ar),
(ii) underway measurements of surface partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2), (iii) discrete samples of
dissolved inorganic carbon, and (iv) dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphate. The NCP estimates
agreed well within the uncertainties associated with each approach. The highest late summer NCP (up to
6 mol C m-2) was observed in the marginal sea ice zone region. Low values (〈1 mol C m-2) were found
in the sea ice-covered deep basins with a strong spatial variability. Lowest values were found in the
Amundsen Basin and moderate values in the Nansen and Makarov Basins with slightly higher estimates
over the Mendeleev Ridge. Our findings support a coupling of NCP to sea ice coverage and nutrient supply
and thus stress a potential change in spatial and temporal distribution of NCP in a future Arctic Ocean.
To follow the evolution of NCP in space and time, it is suggested to apply one or several of these approaches
in shipboard investigations with a time interval of 3 to 5 years.
Repository Name:
EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
Type:
Article
,
isiRev
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
