| Summary: | As the precursor to the Arctic Great Rivers Observatory project (Arctic-GRO), the PARTNERS project (NSF-OPP-0229302) was one of 18 proposals funded in 2002 in response to the National Science Foundation - Arctic System Science (NSF-ARCSS) Arctic Freshwater Cycle: Land/Upper-Ocean Linkages solicitation, and is part of a broader set of projects collectively referred to as the Freshwater Integration (FWI) study. We focused on the export and fate of water and water-borne constituents from the pan- arctic watershed. Major field sampling programs were established at downstream stations on the six largest rivers within the pan-arctic watershed; the Yenisey, Ob, Lena, and Kolyma Rivers in Siberia and the Yukon and Mackenzie Rivers in North America. While a variety of previous studies have focused on the chemistry of large arctic rivers, differences in sample collection methods, analytical methods, and the constituents being measured have hampered river inter-comparisons and understanding at the pan-arctic scale. Furthermore, the majority of previous studies were conducted only during summer months. Thus, establishment and implementation of standard protocols (including seasonally representative sampling) for use at all of the rivers was a major advance. International collaborations have been the key to the success of the project. In this collaborative spirit, the project was named PARTNERS (Pan-Arctic River Transport of Nutrients, Organic Matter and Suspended Sediments) although many more constituents and isotopes are collected than the name implies. Biogeochemical data generated during the PARTNERS project are presented here. Most of these measurements will continue beginning in spring 2009 as part of the Arctic-GRO project. PARTNERS Project Personnel: PI: Bruce J. Peterson, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA USA Co-PI: Robert Max Holmes, Woods Hole Research Center, Woods Hole, MA USA Senior Personnel: James W. McClelland, University of Texas at Austin, MSI, Port Aransas, TX USA Senior Personnel: Rainer Amon, Texas A and M University-Galveston, TX USA Senior Personnel: Tim Brabets, USGS Anchorage, AK USA Senior Personnel: Lee Cooper, University of Maryland-CES, Solomons, MD USA Senior Personnel: John Gibson, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada Senior Personnel: V. Gordeev, Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Moscow, Russia Senior Personnel: Chris Guay, Pacific Marine Sciences and Tech, Oakland, CA USA Senior Personnel: David Milburn, DIAND-Water Resources, Yellowknife, Canada Senior Personnel: Pete Raymond, Yale University, New Haven, CT USA Senior Personnel: Robin Staples, DIAND-Water Resources, Yellowknife, Canada Senior Personnel: Igor Shiklomanov, State Hydrological Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia Senior Personnel: Rob Striegl, USGS, Denver, CO USA Senior Personnel: Alexander Zhulidov, CPPI-S, Rostov-on-Don, Russia Senior Personnel: Tatiana Gurtovaya, CPPI-S, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
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