Sea ice variability and primary productivity in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, from methylsulphonate snow record

Rhodes, Rachael, Bertler, Nancy, Baker, Joel, Sneed, Sharon, Oerter, Hans and Arrigo, Kevin (2009) Sea ice variability and primary productivity in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, from methylsulphonate snow record. Geophysical Research Letters, 36 (10). ISSN 0094-8276

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Abstract

The Ross Sea contains the most biologically productive continental shelf in Antarctica and is a region where the annual formation of sea ice drives substantial amounts of bottom water formation. We present snow pit chemistry data from Mt Erebus Saddle that provide a quantitative proxy to reconstruct summer sea ice conditions and rates of marine primary production. The methylsulphonate (MS) record is strongly correlated with changes in the area of open water (R2 = 0.903, p < 0.05) caused by differences in atmospheric circulation and the sea‐ice‐damming effect of large icebergs, B‐15 and C‐19, which calved from the Ross Ice Shelf in 2000 and 2002 respectively. Furthermore, MS and phytoplankton net primary production correlate significantly (R2 = 0.927, p < 0.01). Our results demonstrate the potential of the Mt Erebus Saddle ice core to reconstruct sea ice and primary productivity variability in the Ross Sea beyond the observational record.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Ross Sea, primary production, ice cores
Subjects:	F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences
Department:	Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Geography and Environmental Sciences
Depositing User:	Paul Burns
Date Deposited:	17 Jan 2019 17:53
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2019 21:16
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/37643

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