Meridional zonation of the Barents Sea ecosystem inferred from satellite remote sensing and in situ bio-optical observations
The Barents Sea is a productive, shallow, high-latitude marine ecosystem with complex hydrographic conditions. Zonal hydrographic bands defined by a coastal current. North Atlantic Water, the Polar Front, and the seasonally variable marginal ice edge zone create a meridional zonation of the ecosyste...
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Norwegian Polar Institute
1991
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ftjpolarres:oai:journals.openacademia.net:article/2305 2023-05-15T15:38:30+02:00 Meridional zonation of the Barents Sea ecosystem inferred from satellite remote sensing and in situ bio-optical observations Mitchell, B. Greg Brody, Eric A. Yeh, Eueng-Nan Mcclain, Charles Comiso, Josefino Maynard, Nancy G. 1991-01-09 application/pdf https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2305 https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v10i1.6734 eng eng Norwegian Polar Institute https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2305/5555 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2305 doi:10.3402/polar.v10i1.6734 Copyright (c) 2018 Polar Research Polar Research; Vol. 10 No. 1: Special issue: Proceedings of the Pro Mare Symposium on Polar Marine Ecology. Part 1; 147-162 1751-8369 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 1991 ftjpolarres https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v10i1.6734 2021-11-11T19:12:21Z The Barents Sea is a productive, shallow, high-latitude marine ecosystem with complex hydrographic conditions. Zonal hydrographic bands defined by a coastal current. North Atlantic Water, the Polar Front, and the seasonally variable marginal ice edge zone create a meridional zonation of the ecosystem during the spring-summer transition. The features reveal themselves in satellite imagery and by high-resolution (vertical and horizontal) physical-optical-biological sampling. Surprisingly, the long-term (7-year) mean of Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) imagery reveals the Barents Sea as an anomalous “blue-water” regime at high latitudes that are otherwise dominated by satellite-observed surface blooms. A combination of satellite imagery and in situ bio-optical analyses indicate that this pattern is caused by strong stratification in summer with surface nutrient depletion. The onset of stratification of the entire region is linked to the extent of the winter ice edge: cold years with extensive sea ice apparently stratify early due to ice melt; warm years stratify later, perhaps due to weaker thermal stratification of the Atlantic waters (e.g. Skjoldal et al. 1987). The apparent “low chlorophyll” indicated by the CZCS 7-year mean is partly due to sampling error whereby the mean is dominated by images taken later in the summer. In fact, massive blooms of subsurface phytoplankton embedded in the pycnocline persist throughout the summer and maintain substantial rates of primary production. Further, these subsurface blooms that are not observed by satellite are responsible for dramatic gradients in the beam (c1) and spectral diffuse (k) attenuation coefficients. The Barents Sea exemplifies the need to couple satellite observations with spatially and temporally resolved biogeographic ecosystem models in order to estimate the integrated water column primary production, mass flux or spectral light attenuation coefficients. Article in Journal/Newspaper Barents Sea North Atlantic Polar Research Sea ice Polar Research (E-Journal) Barents Sea Polar Research 10 1 147 162 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Polar Research (E-Journal) |
op_collection_id |
ftjpolarres |
language |
English |
description |
The Barents Sea is a productive, shallow, high-latitude marine ecosystem with complex hydrographic conditions. Zonal hydrographic bands defined by a coastal current. North Atlantic Water, the Polar Front, and the seasonally variable marginal ice edge zone create a meridional zonation of the ecosystem during the spring-summer transition. The features reveal themselves in satellite imagery and by high-resolution (vertical and horizontal) physical-optical-biological sampling. Surprisingly, the long-term (7-year) mean of Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) imagery reveals the Barents Sea as an anomalous “blue-water” regime at high latitudes that are otherwise dominated by satellite-observed surface blooms. A combination of satellite imagery and in situ bio-optical analyses indicate that this pattern is caused by strong stratification in summer with surface nutrient depletion. The onset of stratification of the entire region is linked to the extent of the winter ice edge: cold years with extensive sea ice apparently stratify early due to ice melt; warm years stratify later, perhaps due to weaker thermal stratification of the Atlantic waters (e.g. Skjoldal et al. 1987). The apparent “low chlorophyll” indicated by the CZCS 7-year mean is partly due to sampling error whereby the mean is dominated by images taken later in the summer. In fact, massive blooms of subsurface phytoplankton embedded in the pycnocline persist throughout the summer and maintain substantial rates of primary production. Further, these subsurface blooms that are not observed by satellite are responsible for dramatic gradients in the beam (c1) and spectral diffuse (k) attenuation coefficients. The Barents Sea exemplifies the need to couple satellite observations with spatially and temporally resolved biogeographic ecosystem models in order to estimate the integrated water column primary production, mass flux or spectral light attenuation coefficients. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mitchell, B. Greg Brody, Eric A. Yeh, Eueng-Nan Mcclain, Charles Comiso, Josefino Maynard, Nancy G. |
spellingShingle |
Mitchell, B. Greg Brody, Eric A. Yeh, Eueng-Nan Mcclain, Charles Comiso, Josefino Maynard, Nancy G. Meridional zonation of the Barents Sea ecosystem inferred from satellite remote sensing and in situ bio-optical observations |
author_facet |
Mitchell, B. Greg Brody, Eric A. Yeh, Eueng-Nan Mcclain, Charles Comiso, Josefino Maynard, Nancy G. |
author_sort |
Mitchell, B. Greg |
title |
Meridional zonation of the Barents Sea ecosystem inferred from satellite remote sensing and in situ bio-optical observations |
title_short |
Meridional zonation of the Barents Sea ecosystem inferred from satellite remote sensing and in situ bio-optical observations |
title_full |
Meridional zonation of the Barents Sea ecosystem inferred from satellite remote sensing and in situ bio-optical observations |
title_fullStr |
Meridional zonation of the Barents Sea ecosystem inferred from satellite remote sensing and in situ bio-optical observations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Meridional zonation of the Barents Sea ecosystem inferred from satellite remote sensing and in situ bio-optical observations |
title_sort |
meridional zonation of the barents sea ecosystem inferred from satellite remote sensing and in situ bio-optical observations |
publisher |
Norwegian Polar Institute |
publishDate |
1991 |
url |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2305 https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v10i1.6734 |
geographic |
Barents Sea |
geographic_facet |
Barents Sea |
genre |
Barents Sea North Atlantic Polar Research Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Barents Sea North Atlantic Polar Research Sea ice |
op_source |
Polar Research; Vol. 10 No. 1: Special issue: Proceedings of the Pro Mare Symposium on Polar Marine Ecology. Part 1; 147-162 1751-8369 |
op_relation |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2305/5555 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2305 doi:10.3402/polar.v10i1.6734 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2018 Polar Research |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v10i1.6734 |
container_title |
Polar Research |
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10 |
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1 |
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147 |
op_container_end_page |
162 |
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1766369478864535552 |