Carbon Dynamics in Northern Marginal Seas

• Main Author: Sofia Hjalmarsson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chukchi Sea; East Siberian Sea; Kattegat; Laptev Sea; Chukchi; laptev
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.491.7045

Avhandlingen kommer att försvaras på engelska The marginal seas have, despite their relatively small area, an important role in the global carbon cycle. They are largely influenced by carbon and nutrient fluxes from land and a large part of the biological production occurs in the marginal seas. The carbon dynamic in two shelf areas – The Baltic Sea System (the Baltic Sea, the Kattegat and the Skagerrak) and the Siberian Shelf Seas (the Laptev Sea, the East Siberian Sea and the Chukchi Sea) has been studied in this thesis. Results from a study using historical data on Total Alkalinity (TA) from the Baltic Sea shows that there has been a change in the riverine TA concentrations. TA has increased in rivers draining areas where limestone dominates the bedrock while there has been a decrease in TA concentrations in granite dominated areas. We give two explanations to this change; acid precipitation and increased concentrations of CO2 from decay of organic matter. The Baltic Sea has high DIC concentration relative to its salinity (also due to river input) and as the surface water leaves the Baltic Sea also the DIC is exported and will in the end add to the North Sea