Collaborative research: Impacts of the changing seasonality of wind-driven mixing on the Arctic system

该奖项由2009年《美国复苏和再投资法》(公法111-5)资助。该奖项将支持一项研究，该研究解决以下假设：北极季节性开放水域的扩张范围和持续时间有可能重塑上层海洋的性质和分层，从而极大地改变混合层深度，使内部波场增强至少一个数量级，从而加强盐跃层和跃层中的湍流混合。如果强度足够大，这种强化的混合可以将营养物质和热量从太平洋带到北冰洋表面和光学带，对生态系统、表面通量和海冰形成的反馈产生影响。这是一项跨学科的研究，将分析过去和当前研究项目的数据，并使用理论和数值模拟来解决四个主要问题：1.给定观测到的海冰面积和风，对北极内部风生混合层深度的潜在和观测影响是什么？2.北冰洋内部波场的观测和潜在变化是什么？3.更高能量的波场意味着增加的混合率在空间和时间上的变化是什么？4.这种增强的混合对北极生态系统和热/淡水平衡有什么影响？这项研究对不同的受众有许多更广泛的影响。科学上，这项关于北冰洋混合对全系统影响的研究旨在量化预期的变化，并对物理和生态影响进行初步尝试。这些是影响食物链上游直至自给自足猎人的变化的基础，也是对石油/天然气和矿产勘探的环境影响的考虑。这项研究的结果还将被用于华盛顿大学的跨学科北极科学课程，并通过在西雅图主要科学博物馆太平洋科学中心举行的一年一度的极地科学周末期间举办的特别海洋混合展览“你厨房里的海洋”，将北极和北极的变化带给学校和普通公众。调查人员还将通过与西雅图的青年专业人员国际网络以及马萨诸塞州和缅因州的科学咖啡馆S一起组织演示和活动，接触到新的群体。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This award will support a study that addresses the hypothesis that the expanding extent and duration of seasonal open water in the Arctic has the potential to reshape the properties and stratification of the upper ocean, dramatically altering mixed layer depths, strengthening the internal wave field by at least an order of magnitude, thereby enhancing turbulent mixing in the halocline and pycnocline. If sufficiently strong, this enhanced mixing could bring nutrients and heat from the Pacific Ocean into the Arctic Ocean surface and photic zone, with implications for ecosystems, surface fluxes and feedbacks to sea-ice formation. This is an interdisciplinary study that will analyse data from past and current research programs, and use theory and numerical modeling to address four major questions:1. Given observed sea-ice extent and winds, what are the potential and observed impacts on wind-driven mixed layer depth within the Arctic?2. What is the observed and potential change in the internal wave field of the Arctic Ocean?3. What is the spatial and temporal variation of the increased mixing rates implied by a more energetic wave field?4. What are the impacts of this enhanced mixing on Arctic ecosystem and heat/freshwater balances?This study has numerous 'Broader Impacts' for a variety of audiences. Scientifically, this study of the system-wide impacts of Arctic Ocean mixing aims to quantify anticipated changes, and make the initial foray into physical and ecosystem implications. These are the basis of changes with implications up the food-chain through to subsistence hunters, and are also considerations for the environmental impacts of oil/gas and mineral exploration. Results of the study will also be used in inter-disciplinary Arctic science courses at the University of Washington, and bring the Arctic and Arctic Change to schools and the general public via a special ocean mixing exhibit 'The Ocean in Your Kitchen' at the annual Polar Science Weekend at the Pacific Science Center, Seattle's main science museum. The investigators will also reach new groups by organizing presentations and activities with the Young Professional International Network in Seattle and Science Cafés in Massachusetts and Maine.