Recent Arctic climate change and its remote forcing of Northwest Atlantic shelf ecosystems

• Published in: Oceanography
• Main Authors: Greene, Charles H., Monger, Bruce C., McGarry, Louise P., Connelly, Matthew D., Schnepf, Neesha R., Pershing, Andrew J., Belkin, Igor M., Fratantoni, Paula S., Mountain, David G., Pickart, Robert S., Ji, Rubao, Bisagni, James J., Chen, Changsheng, Hakkinen, Sirpa M. A., Haidvogel, Dale B., Wang, Jia, Head, Erica, Smith, Peter, Conversi, Alessandra
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Oceanography Society 2012
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Climate change; North Atlantic; Northwest Atlantic; Phytoplankton; Sea ice; Zooplankton
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5517

Author Posting. © The Oceanography Society, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of The Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 25, no. 3 (2012): 208-213, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2012.64. During recent decades, historically unprecedented changes have been observed in the Arctic as climate warming has increased precipitation, river discharge, and glacial as well as sea-ice melting. Additionally, shifts in the Arctic's atmospheric pressure field have altered surface winds, ocean circulation, and freshwater storage in the Beaufort Gyre. These processes have resulted in variable patterns of freshwater export from the Arctic Ocean, including the emergence of great salinity anomalies propagating throughout the North Atlantic. Here, we link these variable patterns of freshwater export from the Arctic Ocean to the regime shifts observed in Northwest Atlantic shelf ecosystems. Specifically, we hypothesize that the corresponding salinity anomalies, both negative and positive, alter the timing and extent of water-column stratification, thereby impacting the production and seasonal cycles of phytoplankton, zooplankton, and higher-trophic-level consumers. Should this hypothesis hold up to critical evaluation, it has the potential to fundamentally alter our current understanding of the processes forcing the dynamics of Northwest Atlantic shelf ecosystems. Funding for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation as part of the Regional and Pan-Regional Synthesis Phases of the US Global Ocean Ecosystem (GLOBEC) Program.