Summer freshwater content variability of the upper ocean in the Canada Basin during recent sea ice rapid retreat

Freshwater content （FWC） in the Arctic Ocean has changed rapidly in recent years, in response to significant decreases in sea ice extent. Research on freshwater content variability in the Canada Basin, the main storage area of fresh water is very important to understand the input-output freshwater in the Arctic Ocean. The FWC in the Canada Basin was calculated using data from the Chinese National Arctic Research Expeditions of 2003 and 2008, and from expeditions of the Canadian icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent （LSSL） from 2004 to 2007. Results show that the upper ocean in the Canada Basin became continuously fresher from 2003 to 2008, except during 2006. The FWC increased at a rate of more than 1 m.a-1, and the maximum increase, 7 m, was in the central basin compared between 2003 and 2008. Variability of the FWC was almost entirely limited to the layer above the winter Bering Sea Water （wBSW）, below which the FWC remained around 3 m during the study period. Contributors to the FWC increase are generally considered to be net precipitation, runoff changes, Pacific water inflow through the Bering Strait, sea ice extent, and the Arctic Oscillation（AO）. However, we determined that the first three contributors did not have apparent impact on the FWC changes. Therefore, this paper focuses on analysis of the latter two factors and the results indicate that they were the major contributors to the FWC variability in the basin.

Accumulation of freshwater in the permanent ice zone of the Canada Basin during summer 2008

A combination of 5180 and salinity data was employed to explore the freshwater balance in the Canada Basin in summer 2008. The Arctic river water and Pacific river water were quantitatively distinguished by using different saline end-members. The fractions of total river water, including the Arctic and Pacific river water, were high in the upper 50 m and decreased with depth as well as increasing latitude. In contrast, the fraction of Pacific river water increased gradually with depth but decreased toward north. The inventory of total river water in the Canada Basin was higher than other arctic seas, indicating that Canada Basin was a main storage region for river water in the Arctic Ocean. The fraction of Arctic river water was higher than Pacific river water in the upper 50 m while the opposite was true below 50 m. As a result, the inventories of Pacific river water were higher than those of Arctic river water, demonstrating that the Pacific inflow through the Bering Strait is the main source of freshwater in the Canada Basin. Both the river water and sea-ice melted water in the permanent ice zone were more abundant than those in the region with sea-ice just melted. The fractions of total river water, Arctic river water, Pacific river water increased northward to the north of 82°N, indicating an additional source of river water in the permanent ice zone of the northern Canada Basin. A possible reason for the extra river water in the permanent ice zone is the lateral advection of shelf waters by the Trans-Polar Drift. The penetration depth of sea-ice melted waters was less than 30 m in the southern Canada Basin, while it extended to 125 m in the northern Canada Basin. The inventory of sea- ice melted water suggested that sea-ice melted waters were also accumulated in the permanent ice zone, attributing to the trap of earlier melted waters in the permanent ice zone via the Beaufort Gyre.

Variation of freshwater components in the Canada Basin during 1967–2010

As a conservative tracer, oxygen isotopes in seawater are widely used for water mass analysis, along with temperature and salinity. In this study, seawater oxygen-18 datasets in the Canada Basin during 1967-2010 were obtained from the four cruises of the Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition （1999, 2003, 2008, and 2010） and the NASA database. Fractions of sea ice meltwater and river runoffwere determined from the salinity-5180 system. Our results showed that the river runoff decreased from the south to the north in the Canada Basin. The enhanced amount of river runoff observed in the southern Canada Basin may originate from the Mackenzie River, transported by the Beaufort Gyre. The river runoff component showed maximum fractions during 1967-1969, 1978-1979, 1984-1985, 1993-1994, and 2008-2010, indicating the refresh time of the river runoffwas 5.0-16.0 a in the Canada Basin. The temporal variation of the river runoffwas related to the change of the Arctic Oscillation （AO） index, suggesting the freshwater stored in the Canada Basin was affected by surface sea ice drift and water mass movement driven by atmospheric circulation.

北极海冰快速减少期间加拿大海盆上层海洋夏季淡水含量变化

北极海冰近年来快速减少,北冰洋淡水含量也出现了急剧变化。加拿大海盆作为北冰洋淡水的主要存储区域,研究其淡水含量变化对于认识北冰洋淡水收支有重要意义。本文根据2003年、2008年中国北极考察以及2004年至2007年的加拿大考察数据进行计算,发现除2006年以外,夏季加拿大海盆淡水含量在此期间每年增加1 m以上厚度。增加主要发生在冬季白令海水以上的上层海水中,而在此之下,淡水含量维持在3 m左右,没有显著年际差异。在2006年,加拿大海盆西部上层淡水含量略微减少,但东部和北部海域淡水含量仍略有增加。与2003年相比,2008年加拿大海盆中心海区淡水含量增加量最高可达7 m。分析表明,近年来的海冰减退对加拿大海盆上层淡水含量的增加起着重要作用,北极涛动(AO)正负相位变化也是控制其淡水含量变化的一个重要因素,而降水、径流以及白令海峡入流水的变化对加拿大海盆淡水含量变化影响较小。