| Summary: | Atmospherically-forced wind-induced upwelling along the shelf break leads to enhanced feeding opportunities for intermediate links in the pelagic ecosystem that in turn sustain the exploitation of this environment by animals such as beluga, seabirds, and seals. The Beaufort Sea shelf break is a hotspot for upper trophic level animals because elevated numbers and biomass of large, high-energy zooplankton (e.g., lipid-rich copepods, euphausiids) are regularly upwelled from deeper water onto the shelf during winds from the east, retained there by frontal features when upwelling relaxes, and exploited by bowhead whales, seabirds, and forage fish that in turn are prey for piscivorous marine mammals, such as beluga whales. The Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) data were used to describe wind-induced changes to the Beaufort shelf break hydrography. Data were acquired as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project "The Importance of Shelf Break Upwelling to Upper Trophic Level Ecology in the Western Beaufort Sea". Individual CTD cast data acquired within the box 165 West (W) - 145 W, 69 North (N) - 72N between 29 August and 16 September 2017. PIs: Carin Ashjian (WHOI), Robert Campbell (URI), Michael Jech (NOAA), Joel Llopiz (WHOI), Michael Lowe (WHOI), Stephen Okkonen (UAF), Kathleen Stafford (APL-UW), Jinlun Zhang (APL-UW)
|
|---|