Impacts of estuarine processes on delivery of Arctic riverine materials to the near coastal environment: Implications for water quality and biogeochemical cycling in preparation for Arctic-COLORS

This research project seeks to jumpstart Arctic-COLORS while filling major gaps in our knowledge about the transformation of riverine water quality constituents from the ABoVE domain through estuaries to the near coastal environment. The project conducted field sampling in the Yukon River, delta and plume waters for three transects in spring, early and late summer, and acquisition of additional transect samples during similar flow regimes through our collaborators on the north slope of Alaska and Mackenzie River. Field measurements included a number of water quality parameters relevant to Arctic biogeochemical function and NASA products, including dissolved organic matter (DOM), particulate organic matter (POM), suspended particulate matter (SPM), chlorophyll-a, radiometry, in situ inherent optical properties, discrete dissolved and particle absorption, fluorescent DOM (FDOM), lignin phenols, HPLC pigments, bioavailability of dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Combined, our field sampling, algorithm development, hindcasting, and synthesis efforts will provide a foundation for a successful Arctic-COLORS campaign while providing critical new knowledge of transformations in estuarine systems.