The Winter Heat Budget of Sea Ice in Kotzebue Sound: Residual Ocean Heat and the Seasonal Roles of River Outflow

Abstract

Arctic sea ice impacts the lives of people around the globe, from those who consider it home to those who have never seen it. It is a habitat for the hunted, a garden for the hungry, a bridge between places, a buffer against raging seas (Fang et al., 2018;Gearheard et al., 2013). It is a reflective cap on the top of the world that helps keep oceans cooling and jet streams moving (Francis & Vavrus, 2015;Screen & Simmonds, 2010). And as sea ice cover shrinks, it becomes ever more important to understand the intricacies of interactions between the atmosphere, the ice, and the water below. In this study, we present measurements of the processes affecting the formation and melt of coastal sea ice under the influence of a river outflow, made collaboratively by scientists and Indigenous Elders from the community of Kotzebue, Alaska. In doing so, we weave together potential implications of a rapidly warming Arctic at multiple scales, from livelihoods

Characteristics of ringed seal Pusa hispida (‘natchiq’) denning habitat in Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, during a year of limited sea ice and snow

“…The Elders were involved in all subsequent research stages as well, including fieldwork, model development, and interpretation of results as detailed below. For more information on Ikaaġvik Sikukun's knowledge co-production approach, see Hauser et al (2021b), Mahoney et al (2021), and Witte et al (2021).…”

“…commonly hunts for ringed seals, (2) Sadie Creek, where Elders J.G., R.J.S., and R.S. have extensive hunting experience, and (3) the outflow of the Noatak River channel from the landfast ice edge, a site that plays a key role in the breakup of the landfast ice each spring (Witte et al 2021) (Fig. 1a).…”

“…Meanwhile, shorter sea-ice seasons have produced declines in snow depth on sea ice in the Chukchi Sea (Webster et al 2014, Stroeve et al 2020. Historically, the entirety of Kotzebue Sound has tended to freeze over during the winter, with the landfast ice edge extending out past the mouth of the Sound into the Chukchi Sea (Mahoney et al 2014, Witte et al 2021. However, the winters of 2017−2018 and 2018−2019 were a stark departure from this pattern.…”

“…However, the winters of 2017−2018 and 2018−2019 were a stark departure from this pattern. During these 2 winters, ice formed over only a small fraction of Kotzebue Sound, surface flooding limited the depth of dry snow available for lairs, and snowmelt and sea-ice breakup took place abnormally early (Hauser et al 2021b, Mahoney et al 2021, Witte et al 2021. As climate change continues, these 'anomalous' conditions may become commonplace, with these winters serving as a possible preview of conditions to come (Webster et al 2021).…”

Marine renewable energy for Arctic observations

“…Moored hydrophones detect marine mammals and monitor the acoustic environment for changes as the extent of the sea ice coverage decreases (Stafford et al, 2018). Some Arctic observations are made as part of shortterm process studies, while others are made as part of long-term monitoring programs (Rigor et al, 2008;Witte et al, 2021). All of these observations have one common requirement -the sensors and platforms collecting them must survive the harsh Arctic environment.…”