Nutrient maximums related to low oxygen concentrations in the southern Canada Basin

The phenomenon of nutrient maximums at 70~200 m occurred only in the region of the Canada Basin among the world oceans. The prevailing hypothesis was that the direct injection of the low-temperature high-nutrient brines from the Chukchi Sea shelf (<50 m) in winter provided the nutrient maximums. However, we found that there are five problems in the direct injection process. Formerly Jin et al. considered that the formation of nutrient maximums can be a process of locally long-term regeneration. Here we propose a regeneration-mixture process. Data of temperature, salinity, oxygen and nutrients were collected at three stations in the southern Canada Basin during the summer 1999 cruise. We identified the cores of the surface, near-surface, potential temperature maximum waters and Arctic Bottom Water by the diagrams and vertical profiles of salinity, potential temperature, oxygen and nutrients. The historical 129Ⅰ data indicated that the surface and near-surface waters were Pacific-origin, but the waters below the potential temperature maximum core depth was Atlantic-origin. Along with the correlation of nutrient maximums and very low oxygen contents in the near-surface water, we hypothesize that, the putative organic matter was decomposed to inorganic nutrients; and the Pacific water was mixed with the Atlantic water in the transition zone. The idea of the regeneration-mixture process agrees with the historical observations of no apparent seasonal changes, the smooth nutrient profiles, the lowest saturation of CaCO₃ above 400 m, low rate of CFC-11 ventilation and 3H-3He ages of 8~18 a around the nutrient maximum depths.