Advection in Polar and Sub-Polar Environments: Impacts on High Latitude Marine Ecosystems

• Published in: Progress in Oceanography
• Main Authors: Hunt, George L., Jr., Drinkwater, Kenneth F., Arrigo, Kevin, Berge, Jørgen, Daly, Kendra L., Danielson, Seth, Daase, Malin, Hop, Haakon, Isla, Enrique, Karnovsky, Nina
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Digital Commons @ University of South Florida 2016
• Subjects: Advection; Climate change; Polar and sub-polar biota; Polar marine ecosystems; Sea ice; Life Sciences; Antarctic; Arctic; Barents Sea; Bering Strait; Chukchi Sea; Greenland; Pacific; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Canadian Archipelago; Chukchi; Fram Strait; North Atlantic; Zooplankton
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/879; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2016.10.004

We compare and contrast the ecological impacts of atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns on polar and sub-polar marine ecosystems. Circulation patterns differ strikingly between the north and south. Meridional circulation in the north provides connections between the sub-Arctic and Arctic despite the presence of encircling continental landmasses, whereas annular circulation patterns in the south tend to isolate Antarctic surface waters from those in the north. These differences influence fundamental aspects of the polar ecosystems from the amount, thickness and duration of sea ice, to the types of organisms, and the ecology of zooplankton, fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Meridional flows in both the North Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans transport heat, nutrients, and plankton northward into the Chukchi Sea, the Barents Sea, and the seas off the west coast of Greenland. In the North Atlantic, the advected heat warms the waters of the southern Barents Sea and, with advected nutrients and plankton, supports immense biomasses of fish, seabirds and marine mammals. On the Pacific side of the Arctic, cold waters flowing northward across the northern Bering and Chukchi seas during winter and spring limit the ability of boreal fish species to take advantage of high seasonal production there. Southward flow of cold Arctic waters into sub-Arctic regions of the North Atlantic occurs mainly through Fram Strait with less through the Barents Sea and the Canadian Archipelago. In the Pacific, the transport of Arctic waters and plankton southward through Bering Strait is minimal. In the Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and its associated fronts are barriers to the southward dispersal of plankton and pelagic fishes from sub-Antarctic waters, with the consequent evolution of Antarctic zooplankton and fish species largely occurring in isolation from those to the north. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current also disperses biota throughout the Southern Ocean, and as a result, the biota tends to be similar ...