An examination of the spatial and temporal variability of seawater pCO2 within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Baffin Bay during the summer and fall seasons

• Main Author: Pind, Meredith
• Other Authors: Papakyriakou, Tim (Environment and Geography) Barber, David (Environment and Geography), Mundy, CJ (Environment and Geography) Halden, Norman (Geological Sciences)
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Arctic; pCO2; Baffin Bay; Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Arctic Archipelago; Baffin; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/23250

The distribution of the partial pressure of surface water CO2 (pCO2sw) was measured throughout the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Baffin Bay during the summer and fall. Throughout these two seasons, values ranged from 110 μatm and 436 μatm, demonstrating the high level of variability in pCO2sw across the archipelago. Surface waters remained undersaturated compared to atmospheric pCO2 (~386 μatm) for the majority of the sampling period. Generally, areas in which remnant sea ice was melting were observed to be the most undersaturated, whereas warm, ice-free waters in proximity to rivers were supersaturated with respect to atmospheric pCO2. These observations demonstrate how the influence of freshwater from sea ice melt and rivers affect pCO2sw differently. The region was found to act as an overall sink, absorbing on average 17.6 mmol CO2 m-2 day-1 throughout the two seasons. Seasonally specific factors controlling pCO2sw and their effects through a warming climate are discussed. February 2014