The joint roles of Pacific and Atlantic-origin waters in the Canada Basin, 1997–1998

Abstract

Physical and geochemical data collected weekly during the year-long 2800 km drift of the CCGS des Groseilliers show that Canada Basin waters, and in particular the composition of the halocline, can no longer be viewed as laterally homogeneous and in steady state. The halocline was thinner over the Mendeleyev Abyssal Plain and northern Chukchi Plateau. Here, Pacific-origin upper and middle halocline waters occupied the upper 80 m of the water column and underlying Atlantic-origin lower halocline waters were fresher, colder and much more ventilated than observed in the past. These new observations of a sub-surface oxygen maximum suggest that outflow from the East Siberian Sea now supplies the Canada Basin lower halocline. East of the Northwind Ridge the halocline was thicker and appeared relatively unchanged. Here Pacific-origin upper and middle halocline waters occupied the top 225 m and Atlantic-origin lower halocline waters were identified by an oxygen minimum. The intensity of the Pacific-origin signal, characterized by a nutrient maximum, was strongest over the Chukchi Gap—the passage between the Chukchi Shelf and Plateau—and the Northwind Abyssal Plain and identified two winter-water spreading pathways. Atlantic-origin waters as much as 0.5°C warmer than the historical record were observed over the Chukchi Gap and also over the northern flank of the Chukchi Plateau. These observations signaled that warm-anomaly Fram Strait Branch (FSB) waters, first observed upstream in the Nansen Basin in 1990, had arrived downstream in the Canada Basin eight years later and also indicate two routes whereby FSB waters enter the southern Canada Basin. Although samples were collected throughout one annual cycle, seasonal effects were small and confined to the upper 50 m of the water column. These data show Canada Basin waters are in transition, responding to the effects of upstream change in atmospheric and oceanic circulation.