On the freshening of the northwestern Weddell Sea continental shelf

• Main Authors: Hellmer, Hartmut H., Huhn, Oliver, Gomis, Damià, Timmermann, Ralph
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: European Geosciences Union 2010
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Weddell Sea; Austral; Bransfield Strait; Weddell; Central Basin; Antarc*; Ice Shelf; Ice Shelves; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/93354; https://doi.org/10.5194/osd-7-2013-2010

We analysed hydrographic data from the northwestern Weddell Sea continental shelf of three austral winters (1989, 1997 and 2006) and two summers following the last winter cruise. During summer a thermal front exists at ∼64° S separating cold southern waters from warm northern waters that have similar characteristics as the deep waters of the central basin of the Bransfield Strait. In winter, the whole continental shelf exhibits southern characteristics with high Neon (Ne) concentrations, indicating a significant input of glacial melt water. The comparison of the winter data at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, spanning a period of 17 years, shows a salinity decrease of 0.09 for the whole water column. We interpret this freshening as a reduction in salt input to the water masses being advected northward on the western Weddell Sea continental shelf. Possible causes for the reduced winter salinification are a southward retreat of the summer sea ice edge together with more precipitation in this sector. However, the latter might have happened in conjunction with an increase in ice shelf mass loss, counteracting an enhanced salt input due to sea ice formation in coastal areas formerly occupied by Larsen A and B ice shelves. © Author(s) 2010. Peer Reviewed