Chemical and isotopic compositions of water, particulates, plankton, gases, sediments, and minerals from the Kara Sea and lower Ob and Yenisei Rivers

• Main Authors: Galimov, Erik M, Kodina, Ludmilla A, Stepanets, Oleg V, Korobeinik, G S
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2009
• Subjects: Akademik Boris Petrov; Archive of Ocean Data; ARCOD; BP00; BP00-02; BP00-03; BP00-04; BP00-05; BP00-06/01; BP00-07; BP00-08; BP00-09; BP00-13; BP00-14; BP00-15; BP00-16; BP00-17; BP00-18; BP00-19; BP00-20; BP00-21; BP00-22; BP00-23; BP00-24; BP00-25/01; BP00-26; BP00-27; BP00-28; BP00-29/05; BP00-30; BP00-35; BP00-36; BP00-37/01; BP00-40; BP01; BP01-04; BP01-05; BP01-06; BP01-08; BP01-11; BP01-13/01; BP01-14; BP01-16; BP01-18/02; BP01-19; BP01-22/02; BP01-23; BP01-23/02; BP01-25; BP01-25/01; Arctic; Kara Sea
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.726415; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.726415

The Kara Sea is an area uniquely suitable for studying processes in the river-sea system. This is a shallow sea, into which two great Siberian rivers, Yenisei and Ob, flow. From 1995 to 2003, the sea was studied by six international expeditions onboard the R/V Akademik Boris Petrov. This publication summarizes the results obtained, within the framework of this project, at the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences. Various hydrogeochemical parameters, concentrations and isotopic composition of organic and carbonate carbon of the sediments, plankton, particulate organic matter, hydrocarbons, and dissolved CO2 were examined throughout the whole sea area at more than 200 sites. The d13C varies from -22 and -24 per mil where Atlantic waters enter the Kara Sea and in the north-eastern part of the water area to -27 per mil in the Yenisei and Ob estuaries. The value of d13C of the plankton is only weakly correlated with the d13C of the organic matter from the sediments and is lower by as much as 3-4 per mil. The paper presents the results obtained from a number of meridional river-sea profiles. It was determined from the relations between the isotopic compositions of plankton and particulate matter that the river waters carry material consisting of 70% detrital-humus matter and 30% planktonogenic material in the river part, and the material contained in the offshore waters consists of 30% terrigenous components, with the contribution of bioproducers amounting to 70%. The carbon isotopic composition of the plankton ranges from -29 to -35 per mil in the riverine part, from -28 to -27 per mil in the estuaries, and from -27.0 to -25 per mil in the marine part. The relative lightness of the carbon isotopic composition of plankton in Arctic waters is explained by the temperature effect, elevated CO2 concentrations, and long-distance CO2 supply to the sea with river waters. The data obtained on the isotopic composition of CO2 in the surface waters of the Kara Sea were used to ...