Distribution, Fluxes, and Balance of Particulate Organic Carbon in the Arctic Ocean

Abstract

Particulate organic carbon is one of the major components of the carbon cycle in the ocean. In this study, an attempt to has been made construct a pattern of the distribution and fluxes of particulate organic carbon in the Arctic Ocean with account for its exchange with the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The specificity of this construction is associated with the irregular distribution of measurements of particulate organic carbon and with the complicated structure and hydrodynamics of the water masses. To overcome these difficulties, multiple linear regression analysis was applied for testing the correlation between the particulate organic carbon concentration, temperature, and salinity, as well the depth, horizon, latitude, and distance from shore. As a result, maps of the distribution of particulate organic carbon and its fluxes were compiled for 38 horizons from 5 to 4150 m (with a resolution of resolution of 1° × 1°). The data on the temperature, salinity, meridional, and latitudinal components of current velocities were obtained from the ORA S4 database (Integrated Climate Data Center, http://icdc.cen.uni-hamburg.de/las). According to these estimates, the import of particulate organic carbon in the Arctic Ocean was estimated to be 38 ± 8 Tg C year^–1, and the export was 9.5 ± 4.4 Tg C year^–1.