696
Land-Ocean Systems in the Siberian Arctic: Dynamics and History
hinterland, particularly via the quantity and quality of the riverine water and sediment transport.
Reversely, sea-level and ice-cover changes in the marine environment have direct influence on
the precipitation and temperature regime on land, both of which have a strong impact on the
vegetation and permafrost behaviour and thus on the water and carbon balances.
In order to address the complexity and interdependencies of processes both in the marine and
in the terrestrial environment, three bilateral research projects were established in RussianGerman collaboration in northern Central Siberia. Whilst part of the cooperation specifically
focuses on the reconstruction of the Late Quaternary climatic and environmental history of the
Laptev Sea Shelf and Taymyr PeninSUla/Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago, other investigations
were devoted to the study of modern processes, describing ecosystems and different
environmental settings of the study area.
Strategy and history
Marine studies
The drastic and fast environmental reaction on climate change in the Arctic (e.g. CLIMAP,
1976; Broecker, 1994; Imbrie and Imbrie, 1980) is potentially of great importance because the
modes and rates of present deep- and intermediate-water renewal of the Norwegian Greenland
Sea and the Arctic Ovean have an important control on the global environment, while the heat
exchange between the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic Ocean generates a regional anomaly of
the northern hemisphere climatic zonation resulting in habitable areas in northwestern Europe,
including its highest North.
The sensitivity of the Arctic sea-ice cover to climate change is well established and provides a
strong motivation for research in this area. Furthermore, however, the recent record minima in
summertime ice extent observed over the Siberian shelves in the early and mid-1990's
(Maslanik et a!., 1996) underscore the importance of the Laptev Sea as an indicator as well as
an agent of change. While the Laptev Sea is most remote from Atlantic and Pacific
oceanographic influences, its importance as the prime ice production area in the Arctic Basin
and as source area of the Transpolar Drift (Rigor and Colony, 1997) provides a linkage that
reaches as far as the freshwater budget of the Greenland Sea (Figure 1). Global climate change
potentially amplified by anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases is assumed to
considerably affect the Arctic Ocean's oceanographic circulation and the waxing and waning of
its sea-ice cover (Wadhams, 1995). Unfortunately, the knowledge about present and past
processes driving these changes is limited, and it is not entirely clear to what an extent such
regional processes are tied into a global picture. We believe that the interpretation of
paleoclimatic records in conjunction with the study of modern processes will further the
understanding and prediction of the Arctic System.
Scientific investigations within the scope of the bilateral projects were planned as part of a
system approach. They comprise marine and terrestrial investigations, and a suite of modelling
experiments and theoretical considerations. While studying a complicated system such as the
Laptev Sea region, it is expedient to divide it into subsystems. It will be most natural to
delineate the modern (e.g., hydrophysical, chemical, biological) and past subsystems which are
constrained by both marine and terrestrial boundary conditions. The boundary conditions of
these subsystems are quite variable. They can be treated as constant (in as far as modern
processes are concerned), faintly varying (interannual and climatic variations) and strongly
varying (paleoclimatic variations) depending on temporal scales. While describing marine
system evolution, its boundaries can be considered as a subsystem. Parameters of this
subsystem play different roles depending on the temporal scale of process integration.
Land-Ocean Systems in the Siberian Arctic: Dynamics and History
hinterland, particularly via the quantity and quality of the riverine water and sediment transport.
Reversely, sea-level and ice-cover changes in the marine environment have direct influence on
the precipitation and temperature regime on land, both of which have a strong impact on the
vegetation and permafrost behaviour and thus on the water and carbon balances.
In order to address the complexity and interdependencies of processes both in the marine and
in the terrestrial environment, three bilateral research projects were established in RussianGerman collaboration in northern Central Siberia. Whilst part of the cooperation specifically
focuses on the reconstruction of the Late Quaternary climatic and environmental history of the
Laptev Sea Shelf and Taymyr PeninSUla/Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago, other investigations
were devoted to the study of modern processes, describing ecosystems and different
environmental settings of the study area.
Strategy and history
Marine studies
The drastic and fast environmental reaction on climate change in the Arctic (e.g. CLIMAP,
1976; Broecker, 1994; Imbrie and Imbrie, 1980) is potentially of great importance because the
modes and rates of present deep- and intermediate-water renewal of the Norwegian Greenland
Sea and the Arctic Ovean have an important control on the global environment, while the heat
exchange between the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic Ocean generates a regional anomaly of
the northern hemisphere climatic zonation resulting in habitable areas in northwestern Europe,
including its highest North.
The sensitivity of the Arctic sea-ice cover to climate change is well established and provides a
strong motivation for research in this area. Furthermore, however, the recent record minima in
summertime ice extent observed over the Siberian shelves in the early and mid-1990's
(Maslanik et a!., 1996) underscore the importance of the Laptev Sea as an indicator as well as
an agent of change. While the Laptev Sea is most remote from Atlantic and Pacific
oceanographic influences, its importance as the prime ice production area in the Arctic Basin
and as source area of the Transpolar Drift (Rigor and Colony, 1997) provides a linkage that
reaches as far as the freshwater budget of the Greenland Sea (Figure 1). Global climate change
potentially amplified by anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases is assumed to
considerably affect the Arctic Ocean's oceanographic circulation and the waxing and waning of
its sea-ice cover (Wadhams, 1995). Unfortunately, the knowledge about present and past
processes driving these changes is limited, and it is not entirely clear to what an extent such
regional processes are tied into a global picture. We believe that the interpretation of
paleoclimatic records in conjunction with the study of modern processes will further the
understanding and prediction of the Arctic System.
Scientific investigations within the scope of the bilateral projects were planned as part of a
system approach. They comprise marine and terrestrial investigations, and a suite of modelling
experiments and theoretical considerations. While studying a complicated system such as the
Laptev Sea region, it is expedient to divide it into subsystems. It will be most natural to
delineate the modern (e.g., hydrophysical, chemical, biological) and past subsystems which are
constrained by both marine and terrestrial boundary conditions. The boundary conditions of
these subsystems are quite variable. They can be treated as constant (in as far as modern
processes are concerned), faintly varying (interannual and climatic variations) and strongly
varying (paleoclimatic variations) depending on temporal scales. While describing marine
system evolution, its boundaries can be considered as a subsystem. Parameters of this
subsystem play different roles depending on the temporal scale of process integration.