Notably the Siberian River Run-off (SIRRO) project was ... of the discharge of western Siberian rivers on the Kara ... The book is divided into four broad themes.
Eos, Vol. 85, No. 2 0 , 1 8 May 2004
Siberian River Run-off in the Kara Sea: Characterisation, Quantification, Variability and Environmental Significance R . STEIN, K . FAHL, D. K . Fiitterer, E . M. GALIMOV, O.V. SIEPANEIS (EDS.) Proceedings in Marine Science, 6. Elsevier; ISBN 0-444-51365-5; 500 pp.; 2003; $159. PAGE 2 0 4
After the end of the Cold War, the number of scientific publications dealing with Russian Arctic seas increased dramatically These include compilations of Soviet-era data sets, as well as new data collected by international expeditions since the early 1990s. Several large, multidisciplinary projects were organized through Russ ian-German research partnership focusing on the Laptev and Kara seas. Notably the Siberian River Run-off (SIRRO) project was aimed at investigating the effects of the discharge of western Siberian rivers on the Kara Sea.The importance of this topic is justified by the critical role of runoff in the formation and maintenance of the Arctic Ocean ice cover, and in controlling the deep-sea thermohaline convection in the Nordic seas.The Kara Sea receives more than one-third of the total runoff into the Arctic Ocean, predominantly from the Ob andYenisey rivers, which drain a huge catchment area extending to the slopes of the Tibetan Plateau. Results of SIRRO are now published in Siberian River Run-off in the Kara Sea. The overall com position of this b o o k reflects a well-balanced structure of SIRRO that covers a range of topics in physical, chemical, biological, and geological oceanography Due to this, the b o o k provides
a unified structure, although it consists of indi vidual, peer-reviewed papers. The b o o k is divided into four broad themes (sections) bearing on various aspects of riverine discharge in the Kara Sea: modern discharge, related biological processes, organic carbon cycle, and sedimentary records.This division may not perfectly classify all papers in the book, but it provides a general, quick overview of the problems addressed. The first section,"Modern Discharge: Data and Modeling," is a somewhat eclectic collec tion of papers in physical and c h e m i c a l oceanography The first three cover the major topics in physical oceanography of the Kara Sea: influence of runoff, distribution of Atlantic water inflow, and marine-fresh water interac tions in front of the estuaries.These papers, c o m b i n e d , provide a comprehensive, state-ofthe-art overview of hydrographic processes in this part of the Arctic, while maintaining a good b a l a n c e between compiled historical data and new data and modeling results. Three succeeding papers discuss various aspects of stable isotopic ( 0 and C) composition of water and sediments in near-estuarine areas, and the application of these data for understanding circulation and composition of water masses in this hydrographically complex environment. Another paper illustrates major g e o c h e m i c a l features of the dissolved and particulate load, as well as surficial bottom sediments in the Yenisei estuary The last paper in this section examines the distribution of man-made radionuclides in the Kara Sea. I 8
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The section titled "Discharge and Biological Processes" provides a comprehensive study of planktonic and benthic communities in the Ob and Yenisei estuaries and adjacent part of the Kara Sea. Investigation of benthic fauna provides a comparison of data collected in the 1990s and more than 50 years before—a rare opportunity to add a historical perspec tive to a marine ecosystem study. A thorough knowledge of Arctic estuarine ecosystems is
especially important in view of a potentially high sensitivity of these areas to climatic changes. The next section,"Discharge and Organic Carbon Cycle," deals with various aspects of organic matter distribution within and in front of the Ob and Yenisei estuaries. These studies include measurements of dissolved organic matter, particle fluxes in sediment traps, and biomarkers in bottom sediments. Results sup port prior evidence that estuarine areas con stitute a major sink for terrigenous organic carbon in the Arctic, while the majority of dis solved organic matter probably exports into the Arctic Ocean. The last section,"Discharge and Sediment Records," addresses the history of sedimentary and related paleoceanographic environments in a geological perspective.The use of only relatively short sediment cores and high-reso lution sonar equipment limits the age range of investigated strata to the Holocene (approxi mately 10 kyr),when rising post-glacial s e a level e n h a n c e d the deposition of soft, fine grained sediments. Based on numerous C ages and a combination of sediment cores with geo-acoustic records, the authors of two complementary papers reconstruct the migra tion of proestuarine depocenters across the Kara S e a to the modern estuaries with the s e a level rise. It is important to note that these depocenters provide a much higher temporal resolution than is common for Arctic continental shelves, which makes these sites valuable for paleoceanographic studies. Overall, Siberian River Run-off in the Kara Sea presents a comprehensive, up-to-date investigation of river-influenced Arctic marine environments exemplified by the Kara Sea. This b o o k can b e r e c o m m e n d e d to a wide range of specialists and students involved in research of Arctic hydrology and marine system. 14
—LEONID POLYAK, Byrd Polar Research Center, T h e Ohio State University, Columbus
