The Results of Oceanographic Studies in the Marginal Ice Zone of the Barents Sea in the Spring of 2023

Abstract

The results of oceanographic research in the marginal ice zone of the Barents Sea near the ice cover boundary, carried out from the R/V Dalnie Zelentsy from April 27 to May 6, 2023, are presented. The position of the frontal zones recorded from contact observations on hydrological meridional transects along 33°30′, 40°, 45°, and 50° E are considered. The transects were made from the fields of finely broken annual ice southward towards the open water area of the Barents Sea. High-gradient zones expressed in the temperature and salinity fields at different distances from the ice field edge were detected on all transects. It was shown that during the research period the frontal zone was located at a distance from 25 to 180 km from the ice field edge, the temperature gradients varied from 0.021 to 0.067 °C/km, the salinity — from 0.002 to 0.012 psu/km, the width of the frontal zone did not exceed 28 km. The maximum values of chlorophyll-a and dissolved oxygen were observed in the area of the frontal zone boundary.