CASES

The CASES program was carried out from September 2002 to August 2004. The objective of the CASES field expeditions was to perform an extensive sampling of the Southern Beaufort Sea and the Amundsen Gulf coastal shelves (from 67N to 76N and from 120W to 41W). Two different expeditions were held. The first expedition was conducted on board the CCGS Pierre Radisson between September 20th and October 14th, 2002 and was identified as leg 0. The second expedition was conducted on board the CCGS Amundsen between September 8th, 2003, and August 26th, 2004. This last expedition was divided into nine periods of six weeks (four weeks for leg 9) designated legs 1 to 9.The scientific program is focussing on a central hypothesis which states that the atmospheric, oceanic and hydrologic forcing of sea ice variability dictates the nature and magnitude of biogeochemical carbon fluxes on and at the edge of the Mackenzie Shelf. The Canadian-led projects studied: 1) Atmospheric and sea ice forcing of coastal circulation; 2) Ice-atmosphere interactions and biological linkages; 3) Light, nutrients, primary and export production in ice-free waters; 4) Microbial communities and heterotrophy; 5) Pelagic food web: structure, function and contaminants; 6) Organic and inorganic fluxes; 7) Benthic processes and carbon cycling; 8) Millennial-decadal variability in sea ice and carbon fluxes; 9) Coupled bio-physical models of the carbon flows on the Canadian Arctic Shelf (Simard et al., 2010).Reference: Simard, A., Rail, M.E., Gratton, Y. 2010. Distribution of temperature and salinity in the Beaufort Sea during the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study sampling expeditions 2002-2004. Report No R1187, INRS-ETE, Quebec (QC), 128p.