Published

Credit: Mike Rawlins

Credit: Mike Rawlins

Over half of the fresh water and water-borne nutrients flowing from land to the Alaska Beaufort Sea each year are delivered during a two-week period in the spring — earlier than most seasonal Arctic research begins. These inputs are dominated by three large rivers that flow into the central Alaska Beaufort Sea. The composition of nutrients in river water also varies markedly across Alaska’s North Slope; proportions of inorganic versus organic nutrients in rivers feeding the Beaufort Sea increase with watershed steepness from west to east across the region.

 

Learn more

  1. Connolly, CT et al. 2018. Watershed slope as a predictor of fluvial dissolved organic matter and nitrate concentrations across geographical space and catchment size in the Arctic. Environmental Research Letters. doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/aae35d
  2. McClelland, JW et al. 2014. River export of nutrients and organic matter from the North Slope of Alaska to the Beaufort Sea. Water Resources Research. doi: 10.1002/2013WR014722

Contact

Kenneth Dunton
ken.dunton@utexas.edu

Posted:  July 6, 2020