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properties include mixing due to tidal currents and the effect of strong winds, and in particular the wind mixing may play an increasing role in the Laptev Sea

Russia

System, if the trend towards longer open water season continues.

The Transdrift 22 expedition is sched- uled for late summer 2014, during which the scientists plan the recovery of the sea? oor observatories and hope to iden- tify more pieces of the Laptev Sea puzzle for a clearer understanding of the fate of the Laptev Sea and the Transpolar Drift

System under a changing climate.

Cruisetrack of the Transdrift 21 expedition from Arkhangelsk to Tiksi.

instance, was found in the north-east of Markus Janout is a vertically distribute water properties in the Lena Delta, several hundred kilome- physical oceanogra- order to understand, for instance, 1) the ters away from the source. The extent is pher at the Alfred rate at which the Lena River water is surprising, but it follows a general trend Wegener Institute mixed downwards, which has implica- in the recent past which is characterized (AWI) for Polar and tions for the strati? cation, i.e. the layer- by longer open water seasons; the ocean’s Marine Research, ing of the ocean; 2) the vertical redistri- temperature was up to 6°C throughout Germany, specialized bution of warm surface waters may store much of the region. This can be consid- in oceanographic heat in the water column or near the ered quite warm for an Arctic shelf sea, processes on high latitude continental sea? oor, which may have implications and the amount of heat that is stored in shelves and slopes. Janout completed a for subsea permafrost, methane and sea- the water column likely has consequences PhD in Physical Oceanography at the ? oor organisms; or 3) the upward mixing on the organisms and may further delay of nutrients, which are often enhanced University of Alaska, Fairbanks in 2010, the onset of sea ice in the fall. near the sea? oor, which generally where he focused on heat and freshwater

Along those lines, some of the scien- enhances biological productivity. Some controlling processes in the Gulf of Alaska ti? c questions that the project pursues of the important mechanisms that help and the Bering Sea, before transitioning to is to identify the processes that help to the mixing and vertical redistribution of AWI to join the Laptev Sea group.

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