Warming of Atlantic Water in three west Spitsbergen fjords: recent patterns and century-long trends

Bloshkina, Ekaterina; Pavlov, Alexey; Filchuk, Kirill

doi:10.33265/polar.v40.5392

Cited by 14 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Along the west coast of Svalbard, the plankton communities are affected by the Atlantic water inflow (Kubiszyn et al, 2014;Gluchowska et al, 2016;Balazy et al, 2018;Hop et al, 2019). The influence of Atlantic water in this area has increased during the last decades (Muckenhuber et al, 2016;Tverberg et al, 2019;Skogseth et al, 2020;Bloshkina et al, 2021;Strzelewicz et al, 2022), which has contributed to an increase in the availability of North Atlantic prey such as C. finmarchicus (Aarflot et al, 2018;Hop et al, 2019). Little auks breeding in West Spitsbergen thus represent an ideal study system to assess the consequence of a shift from an Arctic to an Atlantic prey community on an endemic Arctic predator.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consequences of Atlantification on a Zooplanktivorous Arctic Seabird

Descamps

Wojczulanis‐Jakubas²,

Jakubas³

et al. 2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Global warming, combined with an increasing influence of Atlantic Waters in the European Arctic, are causing a so-called Atlantification of the Arctic. This phenomenon is affecting the plankton biomass and communities with potential consequences for the upper trophic levels. Using long-term data (2005-2020) from a high Arctic zooplanktivorous seabird, the little auk (Alle alle), we tested the hypothesis that the Atlantification affects its diet, body condition and demography. We based our study on data collected in three fjords in West Spitsbergen, Svalbard, characterized by distinct oceanographic conditions. In all three fjords, we found a positive relationship between the inflow of Atlantic Waters and the proportion of Atlantic prey, notably of the copepod Calanus finmarchicus, in the little auk chick diet. A high proportion of Atlantic prey was negatively associated with adult body mass (though the effect size was small) and with chick survival (only in one fjord where chick survival until 21 days was available). We also found a negative and marginally significant effect of the average proportion of Atlantic prey in the chick diet on chick growth rate (data were available for one fjord only). Our results suggest that there are fitness costs for the little auk associated with the Atlantification of West Spitsbergen fjords. These costs seem especially pronounced during the late phase of the chick rearing period, when the energetic needs of the chicks are the highest. Consequently, even if little auks can partly adapt their foraging behaviour to changing environmental conditions, they are negatively affected by the ongoing changes in the Arctic marine ecosystems. These results stress the importance of long-term monitoring data in the Arctic to improve our understanding of the ongoing Atlantification and highlight the relevance of using seabirds as indicators of environmental change.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consequences of Atlantification on a Zooplanktivorous Arctic Seabird

Descamps

Wojczulanis‐Jakubas²,

Jakubas³

et al. 2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

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“…Our observations seem to coincide with the positive trends in long-term AW inflow and glacier-melt runoff during the analyzed period (1997 -2019) which are the two possible reasons, potentially explaining the positive trends in IOPs. The increase of the AW impact on the water masses within the Svalbard fjords, phytoplankton bloom dynamics, and acceleration of the melting processes were reported in some of the recent publications (Pavlov et al, 2013;Promińska et al, 2017;Hegseth et al, 2019;Bloshkina et al, 2021). The presence of the warmer AW may cause faster ice-melting from the bottom and higher heat content at the starting point which means that the temperature optima of the planktonic organisms may be reached or exceeded earlier in the year.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…The other fjords on the west coast of Spitsbergen are more impacted by the WSC and AW. In particular, the seabed topography of the Isfjorden and the Kongsfjorden allows for easier penetration of AW into these fjords (Cottier et al, 2010;Skogseth et al, 2020;Bloshkina et al, 2021). In contrast, the Van Mijenfjord is a semi-enclosed water basin, separated from the Bellsund that connects it with the Greenland Sea by two elongated islands Akseløya and Mariaholmen positioned across the entrance of the fjord.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Darkening of the Svalbard Fjords Waters Observed With Satellite Ocean Color Imagery in 1997–2019

et al. 2021

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Global warming is not often discussed in the context of light availability within the water column. However, the light regimes in the Arctic Ocean are controlled by three factors that are influenced by climate changes which are the sea ice albedo feedback, glacial meltwater runoff and marine primary production. Based on a satellite data series acquired during time period 1997 – 2019, we inspected long-term changes of the three commonly used optical characteristics Chla, atot(443), and Kd(490) within the Svalbard fjords and on the West Spitsbergen Shelf. We revealed evident positive trends in summer (July – September) in the Isfjorden, the Kongsfjorden, the Hornsund fjord, and the Bellsund. Moreover, between 1997 and 2019 at the majority of locations we observed a regime shift toward darker waters. We showed that light availability has changed in the Svalbard fjords since 1997, which may be a symptom of transformations in the environment that should be further investigated and monitored.

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“…The shoaling of AW has also been observed in the Eurasian Arctic (Polyakov et al, 2017), along west-Spitsbergen, and in the fjords along West-Spitsbergen (Tverberg et al, 2019;Skogseth et al, 2020;Strzelewicz et al, 2022). In addition, AW advected into the fjords in West-Spitsbergen have warmed in the recent two decades (Bloshkina et al, 2021;Pavlov et al, 2013;Tverberg et al, 2019;Skogseth et al, 2020). As the AW circulates over shallower isobaths, the physical processes taking place on the saddle between (Schauer, 1995;Skogseth et al, 2004;Vivier et al, 2023).…”

Section: Olga Basinmentioning

confidence: 93%

An emerging pathway of Atlantic Water to the Barents Sea through the Svalbard Archipelago: drivers and variability

Kalhagen,

Skogseth,

Baumann

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Abstract. The Barents Sea, an important component of the Arctic Ocean, is experiencing shifts in ocean currents, stratification, sea-ice variability, and marine ecosystems. Inflowing Atlantic Water (AW) is known to be a key driver of change. Although AW predominantly enters the Barents Sea via the Barents Sea Opening, other pathways exist but remain relatively unexplored. Summer climatology fields of temperature in the last century compared to 2000–2019 indicate warming in the trench Storfjordrenna and the shallow banks Hopenbanken and Storfjordbanken in the Svalbard Archipelago, and shoaling of AW, extending further into the "channel" between Edgeøya and Hopen islands. This region emerges as a pathway of AW into the northwestern Barents Sea. One year-long records from a mooring deployed between September 2018 and November 2019 at a saddle in this channel, show the flow of Atlantic-origin waters into the Arctic domain of the northwestern Barents Sea. The average current is directed eastward, into the Barents Sea, but is dominated by large variability throughout the year. Here, we investigate this variability on time scales from hours to months. Wind forcing mediates the currents and the water and heat exchange through the channel through geostrophic adjustment to Ekman transport. The main drivers for the AW inflow and the cross-saddle transport of positive temperature anomalies are persistent strong semidiurnal tidal currents, intermittent wind-forced events, and wintertime warm water intrusions forced by upstream conditions. We propose that similar topographic constraints where the Polar Front acts like a barrier may become more important for AW inflow and heat exchange in the future. The ongoing warming and possible shoaling of AW together with changes in the large-scale weather patterns would likely increase inflow and heat transport through the processes identified in this study.

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Warming of Atlantic Water in three west Spitsbergen fjords: recent patterns and century-long trends

Cited by 14 publications

References 36 publications

Consequences of Atlantification on a Zooplanktivorous Arctic Seabird

Consequences of Atlantification on a Zooplanktivorous Arctic Seabird

Darkening of the Svalbard Fjords Waters Observed With Satellite Ocean Color Imagery in 1997–2019

An emerging pathway of Atlantic Water to the Barents Sea through the Svalbard Archipelago: drivers and variability

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