Ocean temperature and salinity measured by CTD SRDLs deployed on southern elephant seals from King George Island with links to datasets ...

• Main Authors: Bornemann, Horst, Bester, Marthán Nieuwoudt, de Bruyn, P J Nico, Márquez, María Elba Isabel, McIntyre, Trevor, Plötz, Joachim, Schröder, Michael, Tosh, Cheryl Ann
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2015
• Subjects: Marine endotherm; CAR2013; JUB2010; Carlini/Jubany Station; Dallmann Laboratory; Marine Mammal Tracking MMT; Antarctic; Bellingshausen Sea; King George Island; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Elephant Seals; Ice Shelf; Ice Shelves; Southern Elephant Seals
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.150009; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.150009

West Antarctic ice shelves have thinned dramatically over recent decades. Oceanographic measurements that explore connections between offshore warming and transport across a continental shelf with variable bathymetry toward ice shelves are needed to constrain future changes in melt rates. Six years of seal-acquired observations provide extensive hydrographic coverage in the Bellingshausen Sea, where ship-based measurements are scarce. Warm but modified Circumpolar Deep Water floods the shelf and establishes a cyclonic circulation within the Belgica Trough with flow extending toward the coast along the eastern boundaries and returning to the shelf break along western boundaries. These boundary currents are the primary water mass pathways that carry heat toward the coast and advect ice shelf meltwater offshore. The modified Circumpolar Deep Water and meltwater mixtures shoal and thin as they approach the continental slope before flowing westward at the shelf break, suggesting the presence of the Antarctic ...