HR: 16:45h
AN: C54A-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Salinity Trends on the Siberian Shelves
AU: * Steele, M
EM: mas@apl.washington.edu
AF: Polar Science Center Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington, 1013 NE 40th St., Seattle, WA 98105 United States
AU: Ermold, W
EM: wermold@apl.washington.edu
AF: Polar Science Center Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington, 1013 NE 40th St., Seattle, WA 98105 United States
AB: We present an analysis of observed long-term (~100 year) salinity trends on the freshwater-dominated Siberian continental shelves. A multiple regression was performed in the White Sea (WS), the Kara Sea (KS), the Laptev Sea (LS), and the East Siberian Sea (ESS). Since 1930, both the WS and the KS have been freshening, consistent with reports of increasing river discharge over this period. Over the past 20 years, increases in both river discharge and direct precipitation can explain the observed salinity decrease in the WS, but not in the KS. On the other hand, salinity trends in the LS and ESS indicate that ocean circulation plays a dominate role in these areas, where in recent years freshwater has been diverted eastward along the coast, rather than northward towards the deep ocean.
DE: 4207 Arctic and Antarctic oceanography
DE: 4215 Climate and interannual variability (3309)
DE: 4219 Continental shelf processes
DE: 4243 Marginal and semienclosed seas
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting