Characteristics of pCO_2 in surface water of the Bering Abyssal Plain and their effects on carbon cycle in the western Arctic Ocean

The global warming has obviously been causingthe Arctic sea ice shrinking and thinning during thelast 30 years, which would increase free ice waters andenhance biological productivity. These changes willimpact the source and sink of carbon in the ArcticOcean and subarctic waters as well as a feedback tothe global change1—3]. The Chukchi Sea is located in the southwest ofthe western Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea in thenorthwest of the North Pacific Ocean. Both seas are 1997—2001) and…

Characteristics of pCO2 in surface water of the Bering Abyssal Plain and their effects on carbon cycle in the western Arctic Ocean

Characteristics of the pCO2 distribution in surface water of the Bering Abyssal Plain and their relationships with the ambient hydrological conditions were discussed using variations of the partial pressure of CO2 in surface water of the Bering Abyssal Plain and the Chukchi Sea. Data in this study are from a field investigation during the First Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition in 1999. Compared to the high productivity in the Bering Continental Shelf, much lower levels of chlorophyll a were observed in the Bering Abyssal Plain. The effect of hydrological factors on the pCO2 distribution in surface seawater of the Plain in summer has become a major driving force and dominated over biological factors. The Plain also presents a High Nutrient Low Chlorophyll (HNLC). In addition, the pCO2 distribution in the Bering Abyssal Plain has also been found to be influenced from the Bering Slope Current which would transform to the Anadyr Cur- rent when it inflows northwestward over the Plain. The Anadyr Current would bring a high nutrient water to the western Arctic Ocean where local nutrients are almost depleted in the surface water during the summer time. Resupplying nutrients would stimulate the growth of phytoplankton and enhance capacity of absorbing atmospheric CO2 in the surface water. Otherwise, in the Bering Sea the dissolved inorganic carbon brought from freshwater are not deposited down to the deep sea water but most of them would be transported into the western Arctic Ocean by the Alaska Coastal Current to form a carbon sink there. Therefore, the two carbon sinks in the western Arctic Ocean, one carried by the Anadyr Current and another by the Alaska Costal Current, will impli- cate the western Arctic Ocean in global change.