A 100 year hydrographical record of the Barsnesfjord, Western Norway and its environmental application
2014
Kaufmann, Sabrina
Bachelor Thesis in Geology GE491 28.05.2014
Show more [+] Less [-]A 100 year hydrographical data set of the parameters temperature, oxygen and salinity is analyzed from the water column of the Outer Barsnesfjord, Western Norway, at intervals from 0 m to 75 m water depth. After 1960, average water temperatures started to increase from approximately 6°C to 8°C in the basin waters of the fjord. Beginning at the same time, oxygen and salinity concentrations were decreasing in the Barsnesfjord basin waters: oxygen from 6-4 mg/l to 4-1.5 mg/l and salinity from 33.5‰ to 32.5‰. Similar changes of increasing temperature and decreasing oxygen and salinity occurred also in the intermediate water layer and the surface water layer of the Barsnesfjord although less pronounced. These hydrographical variations are attributed to simultaneous changes observed in the hydrography of the Nordic Seas, as well as to changes in the NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) winter index. It is concluded that hydrographical changes in the Barsnesfjord are highly susceptible to the open ocean hydrography of the Nordic Seas. In addition, the upper water layers might partly be influenced by changes in freshwater input due to damming of rivers in the region since the middle 1970s.
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