Arctic Great Rivers Observatory

The river linkage between the land and the Arctic Ocean plays a central role in the rapidly evolving dynamics of the Arctic System. Six great rivers provide the majority of the continental fresh water to the Arctic Ocean, the most landlocked and freshwater-dominated of the Earth's seas. By measuring the flux of water and constituents at the junction between the continents and the ocean in these key rivers, it is possible to efficiently assess changes occurring across vast regions of the continents that may diagnose environmental change on land and forecast imminent changes in circulation and biogeochemical processes in the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans. We propose an Arctic Great Rivers Observatory (Arctic-GRO) project that will assess river constituent fluxes in the Ob, Yenisey, Lena, Kolyma, Yukon, and Mackenzie Rivers. These observations will be used to test hypotheses about the magnitude, controls and ecological significance of these fluxes and will provide new information on inter-annual variability and on trends in the major fluxes of constituents to the Arctic Ocean.