Response of nutrients and primary production to high wind and upwelling-favorable wind in the Arctic Ocean: A modeling perspective

• Published in: Frontiers in Marine Science
• Main Authors: Anqi Xu, Meibing Jin, Yingxu Wu, Di Qi
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
• Subjects: net primary production (NPP); Arctic Ocean; changing wind regimes; nutrient variations; regional arctic system model; Science; Q; General. Including nature conservation; geographical distribution; QH1-199.5; Arctic; Canada; canada basin; Chukchi; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1065006; https://doaj.org/article/074724e8b9924aca822f10ba0b7550a7

Both remote sensing and numerical models revealed increasing net primary production (NPP) in the Arctic Ocean due to declining sea ice cover and increasing ice-free days. The NPP increases in some parts of the Arctic Ocean are also hypothesized to link to high wind (>10 m/s) and upwelling-favorable wind, however, the mechanism remains unclear. Using Regional Arctic System Model (RASM) to investigate the relationship between NPP and wind, we found that the seasonal NPP are statistically correlated to high wind frequency (HWF) in the Barents (Br) and Southern Chukchi Seas (SC) due to their high subsurface nutrients in the 20-50 m layer. Five high and five low HWF years along a zonally averaged section were chosen to understand the spatial variation of the correlation between HWF, NO3, and NPP in the SC. During high HWF years, the decrease in subsurface NO3 exceeds its increase in surface, implying the utilization by biological productivity. A more positive response of NPP to HWF in north SC than south was also found because more subsurface nutrients were entrained into the surface by higher HWF. The NPP are statistically correlated to easterly wind frequency (EWF) in the Beaufort and Canada Basin (BC), where the stronger EWF-induced upwelling could bring up higher nutrients from >100 m depth. While the nutrients and NPP in the south BC are normally higher than in the north, an increase of EWF can further enhance the nutrients and NPP in the south much more than those in the north. Differences between five high and five low EWF years reveal that the increase of EWF is most important around the shelf break region, where NO3 and NPP are also most enhanced. The enhancement of NPP by higher HWF in the Br and SC is less than that by higher ice-free days ratio (IFR), while the enhancement of NPP by higher EWF in BC is of similar magnitude to that by IFR. As the trend of declining sea ice cover continues, it’s necessary to advance our understanding on the nutrients and NPP response to changing wind regimes in ...