Understanding the Physical Forcings Behind the Biogeochemical Productivity of the Hudson Bay Complex

Abstract

The marine ecosystems in the Canadian Arctic are varied in terms of their productivity depending on the region and their prevailing dynamics (Matthes et al., 2021). The Hudson Bay Complex (HBC), consisting of the Hudson Bay, Foxe Basin, James Bay, and Hudson Strait, is a large and shallow (mean depth of 120-150 m, Macdonald & Kuzyk, 2011) subarctic inland sea that experiences seasonal ice cover (Figure 1). The HBC has historically been considered a low-productivity region in the Canadian Arctic, with the bulk of its chlorophyll a concentration occurring in Hudson Strait, that connects Hudson Bay to the Labrador Sea (1.4 μg L −1 of chlorophyll a in the surface waters and twice as much in the subsurface chlorophyll a maximum in summer; Amiraux et al., 2022) and coastal areas (e.g., up to 2.5 μg L −1 of chlorophyll a in