Beryllium 7 measured during POLARSTERN cruise ARK-XXII/2

DOI

The natural cosmogenic radionuclide 7Be (T1/2 = 53.4 d) is supplied to the surface ocean from the atmosphere and, in the Arctic Ocean, can be used as a tracer of the efficiency with which sea ice intercepts the atmospheric fluxes of chemical species and of the importance of ice as a transport mechanism for particulate matter and chemical species. Analyses of 7Be in samples of surface water, surface sea ice, water beneath the ice, sea ice sediments, and precipitation from the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean show that the fraction of sea ice coverage determines the amount of 7Be in the surface water. When sea ice coverage is 80%, the water column inventory drops to 58 ± 20 Bq m-2. The 7Be inventory in sea ice is 39 ± 23 Bq m-2, and mass balance calculations show that sea ice can intercept 30 ± 18% of the atmospheric flux of 7Be during the studied period. We suggest that other atmospherically transported contaminants should be similarly intercepted. 7Be in the ice also can be used to estimate that the annual transport and release of sediment to the ablation area of the Fram Strait is -500 g m**-2, a value comparable to previously measured fluxes in sediment traps deployed in the area.

Supplement to: Cámara-Mor, Patricia; Masqué, Pere; García-Orellana, Jordi; Kern, Stefan; Cochran, J Kirk; Hanfland, Claudia (2011): Interception of atmospheric fluxes by Arctic sea ice: Evidence from cosmogenic 7Be. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 116, C12041

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.804443
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JC006847
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.804443
Provenance
Creator Cámara-Mor, Patricia; Masqué, Pere; García-Orellana, Jordi; Kern, Stefan ORCID logo; Cochran, J Kirk; Hanfland, Claudia
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 2011
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Language English
Resource Type Supplementary Publication Series of Datasets; Collection
Format application/zip
Size 5 datasets
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (-134.971W, 75.201S, 33.750E, 88.499N); Arctic Ocean
Temporal Coverage Begin 2007-08-02T20:53:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2007-09-24T00:00:00Z