Detailed vertical profiles of hydrographic data and routine chemical parameters (oxygen, nutrients) were taken in the Amerasian basin of the Arctic Ocean and in the Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea. Correlations of these chemical profiles with water mass sources and mixing processes are postulated. The chemical parameters show that the water of the sharp temperature maximum at about 75‐meter depth is chemically a mixture of the arctic surface water and core water from about 160 meters. This core water corresponds to the temperature minimum and nutrient maximum and is of Bering Strait‐Chukchi Sea origin. Chemical parameters clearly show that the temperature maximum and minimum simply reflect differing thermal regimes existing in the Chukchi. Extremely close vertical sampling has shown intriguing detail in the oxygen, temperature, salinity, and nutrient profiles in the area of the very sharp oxygen minimum occurring at about 205 meters. Temperature‐salinity and chemical plots of the close‐interval data identify a core of water at approximately 230 meters that is mixing above with Bering core water at 160 meters and below with the Atlantic core water at about 500 meters. Thus the oxygen minimum appears to be at least partly due to advection of shelf water into the basin rather than to in situ oxidation alone.
Regional and seasonal differences in chemical input from the Wilson and Blossom rivers, two pristine, major salmon-producing rivers in southeast Alaska, were examined. For a period of 2 yr, concentrations of dissolved organic carbon, nutrients, Cu, Fe, and Mn in the rivers were determined at approximately monthly intervals and used to calculate export rates. Because of extremely high annual precipitation (400–450 cm) and drainage basins restricted by high topographical relief, the concentrations and export rates of nutrients and Cu are low in the rivers for most of the year. The maximum nutrient export from the Wilson–Blossom system appears to be closely tied to the annual salmon cycle. Iron and Mn export rates from the watersheds are much higher than those for Cu, reflecting solubilization of Fe and Mn under reducing conditions that develop in muskeg ponds during drought periods. The association of metals with organics allows transport of Fe and possibly other metals throughout the fjord system, in contrast with the large-scale removal of metals in or near the river's mouth, as has been observed elsewhere.
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