ADVANCES IN POLAR SCIENCE ›› 2012, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (2-English): 95-102.DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1085.2012.00095

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Summertime freshwater fractions in the surface water of the western Arctic Ocean evaluated from total alkalinity

GAO Zhongyong1,2, SUN Heng1,2, CHEN Liqi1,2 & ZHANG Fan1,2   

  1. 1 Key Laboratory of Global Change and Marine-Atmospheric Chemistry, State Oceanic Administration (SOA);
    2 Third Institute of Oceanography, SOA
  • Received:2011-09-09 Revised:2011-12-28 Online:1962-06-30 Published:1962-06-30
  • Contact: GAO Zhongyong

Abstract: As a quasi-conservative tracer, total alkalinity (TA) could trace freshwater and seawater. In this study, fractions of sea ice meltwater, river runoff, and seawater in the surface water of western Arctic Ocean are determined from salinity and total alkalinity relationships based on the Third Chinese Arctic Research Expedition during the summer of 2008. The largest fraction of sea ice meltwater was found around 75°N in the Canada Basin, the ice edge zone during survey, where ice concentrations increased northward gradually. The presence of river runoff was associated with the circulation, accumulated in the western Arctic Ocean.

Key words: western Arctic Ocean, total alkalinity, freshwater fractions, sea-ice meltwater, river