Arctic-Subarctic Ocean Flux Monograph

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Rhines abstract06-31881This award supports preparation of a research monograph summarizing results from the Arctic-Subarctic Ocean Flux program (ASOF). This study of the oceanic climate and climate change of the Arctic-Subarctic region is a large, international effort that is a key component of global climate studies. The most basic dynamic balances of the global overturning circulation of the oceans are under debate. Global change may alter theoverturning circulation and with it, global climate and ecosystems. High resolution climate observations with radically new platforms, sustained in time, can guide the numerical climate models which are increasingly relied upon in matters of policy and planning. Beyond physical science, this ASOF has implications to ecosystems in one of the most biologically productive sites on Earth, and a region of strong uptake of carbon from the atmosphere. The work will provide bio-optical profiles and sections at high resolution in regions of unusually high biological productivity. The interdependence of fisheries and physical oceanography in this region is extremely strong, as primary productivity is associated with buoyant, low-salinity layers which trap phytoplankton.