Barents Sea - Environment

The Barents Sea is a relatively deep (mean depth 230 m) shelf area. The LME includes the slopes along the western and northern margins. Atlantic water flows with two main branches into the Arctic Ocean, one branch flowing across the Barents shelf and exiting via the northern Kara Sea, and the other flowing around the shelf plateau west and north of Svalbard. This flow pattern determines the oceanographic regimes with warmer boreal and ice-free conditions in the southwestern part and cold and ice-infested conditions in the northern and eastern parts of the Barents Sea (Skjoldal & Mundy 2013). The Coastal Water has more fresh-water runoff and a lower salinity than the Atlantic water; it also has a stronger seasonal temperature signal. In the northern region of the Barents Sea, fresh and cold Arctic waters flow from northeast to southwest. Atlantic and Arctic water masses are separated by the Polar Front, which is characterised by strong gradients in both temperature and salinity. There is large inter-annual variability in ocean climate related to variable strength of the Atlantic water inflow, and exchange of cold Arctic water. Thus, seasonal variations in hydrographic conditions can be quite large.
Stratification of water masses in different areas of the Barents Sea may occur in several different ways; 1) through fresh surface water from melting ice along the marginal ice zone; 2) through solar heating of surface layers in Atlantic water masses; or 3) through lateral dispersion of waters in the southern coastal region (Rey, 1981).
The substrate is varied, with hard bottoms mostly in sea rises and strong current areas while silty and sandy sediments is also present. Muddy bottom occur in deeper waters.