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Water masses in the Bransfield Strait and adjacent seas, austral summer 2013

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Abstract

The Bransfield Strait is a semi-enclosed sea located in the northern part of the West Antarctic Peninsula region, which is subject to strong climatic changes. The bathymetry is complex and comprises three basins that are separated from each other by shallow sills. Oceanographic measurements of the Bransfield Strait region are available since the first half of the twentieth century. In this study, hydrographic data from the ANT-XXIX/3 expedition of RV Polarstern in 2013 are presented to describe the actual physical state of the art, particularly for biological work done during that cruise. The general hydrographic situation of the Bransfield Strait in 2013 is found to be similar to observations from the early twentieth century. The Bransfield Strait’s water masses are modified versions of the water masses from the adjacent seas. The different water masses within the Bransfield Strait are separated by two fronts, the so-called Bransfield and Peninsula Front. While the Bransfield Front is most pronounced in the central and southwestern Bransfield Strait, the Peninsula Front can be identified from the northeastern to the central part of the study domain. Based on an analysis of water mass properties around the Antarctic Peninsula and close to the Antarctic Sound, a notable inflow of Shelf Water from the Weddell Sea through the Antarctic Sound appears unlikely.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank captain Pahl, his officers and the crew of the R/V Polarstern cruise ANT-XXIX/3 for their outstanding support for the scientific work on board. Furthermore, we thank the oceanographic scientific team for the excellent data sampling work on board and especially Andreas Wisotzki for processing the oceanographic data (CTD data: doi:10.1594/PANGEA.811907 and bottle data: doi:10.1594/PANGEA.811818). Also, we are grateful for useful remarks from the Federal University of Rio Grande. We kindly thank two unknown reviewer for their helpful suggestions that helped to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Alfred Wegener Institute, Bussestrasse 24, 27570, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Wilma Gertrud Charlotte Huneke & Michael Schröeder

  2. Institute for Environmental Physics (IUP), Department of Oceanography, University of Bremen, Otto-Hahn-Allee, 28359, Bremen, Germany

    Oliver Huhn

Authors
  1. Wilma Gertrud Charlotte Huneke
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  2. Oliver Huhn
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  3. Michael Schröeder
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Correspondence to Wilma Gertrud Charlotte Huneke.

Additional information

This article belongs to the special issue on “High environmental variability and steep biological gradients in the waters off the northern Antarctic Peninsula”, coordinated by Julian Gutt, Bruno David and Enrique Isla.

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Huneke, W.G.C., Huhn, O. & Schröeder, M. Water masses in the Bransfield Strait and adjacent seas, austral summer 2013. Polar Biol 39, 789–798 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-1936-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-1936-8

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