Impacts of basal melting of the Totten Ice Shelf and biological
productivity on marine biogeochemical components in Sabrina Coast, East
Antarctica
Abstract
To clarify the impact of basal melting of the Antarctic ice sheet and
biological productivity on biogeochemical processes in Antarctic coastal
waters, concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), total
alkalinity (TA), inorganic nutrients, chlorophyll a, and stable
oxygen isotopic ratios (δ18O) were measured from the
offshore slope to the ice front of the Totten Ice Shelf (TIS) during the
spring/summer of 2018, 2019, and 2020. Off the TIS, modified Circumpolar
Deep Water (mCDW) intruded onto the continental shelf and flowed along
bathymetric troughs into the TIS cavity, where it met the ice shelf base
and formed a buoyant mixture with glacial meltwater. Physical
oceanographic processes mostly determined the distributions of DIC, TA,
and nutrient concentrations. However, DIC, TA, and nutrient
concentrations on the surface of the ice front were decreased by
photosynthesis and the dilution effect of meltwater from sea ice and the
base of the ice shelf. The partial pressure of CO2
(pCO2) in surface water was reduced by photosynthesis
and dilution, and the surface water became a strong CO2
sink for the atmosphere. The DIC and TA (normalized to salinity of 34.3
to correct for dilution effects) changed in a molar ratio of 106:16
because of phytoplankton photosynthesis. The decrease of
pCO2 by more than 100 μatm with respect to mCDW was thus
the result of photosynthesis. The nutrient consumption ratio suggested
that enough iron was present in the water column to supply the surface
layer via buoyancy-driven upwelling and basal melting of the TIS.