Primary production and climatic variability in the European sector of the Arctic Ocean prior to 2007: preliminary results

The primary production in the Greenland Sea, Fram Strait, Barents Sea, Kara Sea and adjacent Polar Ocean was investigated through the physically-biologically coupled, nested 3D SINMOD model with 4 km grid size for the years 1995-2007. The model had atmospheric forcing from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis data. Three basic gross primary production (GPP) domains were distinguished: (i) an extensive domain dominated by Atlantic Water, (ii) an elongated domain roughly corresponding to the seasonal ice zone (SIZ) and (iii) a compact perennial ice zone (> 100, between 100 and 30 and < 30 g C m(-2) year(-1), respectively). The interannual coefficient of variation for GPP in domain (i) was < 0.1, and increased northwards towards > 0.6 in the northwesternmost and northeasternmost fringe of the SIZ. The primary production in the northern sector of the European Arctic Corridor (EAC) region prior to 2007 was characterised by limited interannual variability, on average 75.2 +/- A 10% and 24.0 +/- A 16% g C m(-2) year(-1) for the EAC region at 74-80 and > 80A degrees N, respectively. The main primary production anomalies were found early in the productive season and in sections of the SIZ, generally in regions with low GPP. There was no significant trend of increasing GPP in the 1995-2007 time interval.