The Prospects for Using Little Diomede Island as a Base for Monitoring Bering Strait
Abstract
Diomede, Alaska is arguably the most isolated community in the United States, located on a small island in the center of Bering Strait, one mile from the international dateline, where nutrient-rich waters from the Bering Sea enter the Arctic Ocean. Postal service is once weekly via helicopter, weather permitting and the 140 Native Inupiat residents (2000 census) are highly dependent upon a subsistence lifestyle utilizing local seabirds, marine mammals, and shellfish. Since the summer of 2000, we have worked with the local community to improve analytical capabilities to analyze waters flowing through the Bering Strait. Other goals of the Bering Strait Environmental Observatory include evaluating the biological health and contaminant burdens of marine mammals used for subsistence by island residents. We have also been annually using the Canadian Coast Guard Service Sir Wilfrid Laurier to assess the biological productivity of benthic organisms that are important as food sources in the Bering Strait region for apex predators such as bearded seal, walrus, diving ducks and gray whale. Future infrastructure that is needed includes a subsea water intake system that would be less vulnerable to wave and ice damage than the interim systems we have employed to date. Using a jet well pump in August, 2001, we pumped water onshore through a thermosalinograph, automated nutrient monitoring devices, a fluorometer, and we also collected discrete samples for silica and oxyen-18/oxygen-16 ratios in a small laboratory constructed under the village school. Results indicate that there is a strong relationship between the surface wind regime and the fertility of waters flowing through the center of Bering Strait. Following sustained northerly wind events, and an approximate 72 hour lag period, waters passing Little Diomede Island were predominantly of Alaska Coastal Water origin, with low nutrients and salinity, and comparatively high temperatures. Southerly winds were by contrast significantly correlated with higher nutrients, lower temperatures, and higher salinities following a similar 72-hour period. These observations are consistent with expected Coriolis forcing and suggest that the flux of high nutrient water flowing through Bering Strait may be particularly sensitive to short and long-term variability in surface wind patterns in this localized region.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002AGUFMOS72B0365C
- Keywords:
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- 1615 Biogeochemical processes (4805);
- 4207 Arctic and Antarctic oceanography;
- 4283 Water masses;
- 4804 Benthic processes/benthos