Water Circulation, Temperature, Salinity, and pCO 2 Distribution in the Surface Layer of the East Kamchatka Current

• Published in: Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
• Main Authors: Andrey Andreev, Irina Pipko
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2022
• Subjects: East Kamchatka Current; mesoscale eddies; pCO 2; subarctic North Pacific; Naval architecture. Shipbuilding. Marine engineering; VM1-989; Oceanography; GC1-1581; Bering Sea; Pacific; Kruzenshterna; Kamchatka; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10111787; https://doaj.org/article/928ef4fed795402bb2c7773f7a62f0bb

The ship-borne observations of the temperature, salinity, pCO 2 (1995–2020) and satellite geostrophic velocity fields, SST, and chlorophyll concentration are used to identify the factors that determine the spatio-temporal variability of seawater parameters on the western boundary of the subarctic North Pacific. In winter, the surface layer of the East Kamchatka Current (EKC) was characterized by two types of water: the waters with a negative temperature (−1.0–−0.5 °C) and salinity of 32.4–32.9 and waters with a positive temperature (0.4–1.7 °C) and salinity of 33.0–33.1. The source of water with negative (positive) temperature and decreased (increased) salinity for the EKC zone is the Bering Sea shelf (Aleutian Basin). The surface waters in the eastern Kamchatka area in winter were close to gas equilibrium with the atmosphere or supersaturated with carbon dioxide (pCO 2 = 380–460 µatm). In summer, extremely low pCO 2 values (140–220 µatm) in the surface layer of the eastern Kamchatka and the northern Kuril Islands regions have been associated with the decreased salinity (32.1–32.6) of the waters. The distributions of the temperature, salinity, and pCO 2 in the surface layer of the central Kuril Islands are determined by the location and intensity of the Kuril eddies and the EKC stream jets. The water mixing in the central Kuril Straits and the Kruzenshterna Bank area leads to increased salinity (33.2–33.4) and high values of pCO 2 (480–670 µatm) in the surface layer of the EKC. The comparison of the pCO 2 data collected in winter demonstrates an increase in pCO 2 between 1998/2001 and 2018/2020 at about 50 µatm in the surface waters with a salinity of 33.0–33.1, which is in agreement with an increase in pCO 2 in the atmosphere at 46 µatm (from 368 to 414 µatm) during this period.