NSIDC Cryosphere Seminar: Jed Lenetsky
September
25
Wed
2024
11:00 am - 12:00 pmMDT
Open to Public
Join CU Boulder PhD candidate Jed Lenetsky for his seminar talk on Wednesday, September 25, "Present and future ocean changes in Baffin Bay: Insights from observations and models."
What Jed will discuss
Baffin Bay, located between West Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is a critically important region in the Arctic Ocean. In southern Baffin Bay, the Davis Strait is one of three ocean gateways connecting the Arctic Ocean to the north Atlantic Ocean, and in northern Baffin Bay, the North Water Polynya (NOW) is one of the Arctic Ocean’s most productive ecosystems. The first half of the talk will describe projected changes to the NOW under policy-relevant global warming thresholds using the CESM1 climate model. We find that as global temperatures increase, the spring polynya area increases, and that the polynya disappears earlier in the summer as open water areas in the NOW region connect with open water in central Baffin Bay. Changes to ecosystem productivity in the NOW region are non-linear with warming and are driven by a complex balance in watermass properties between cold, fresh Arctic Waters and comparatively warm, salty, and nutrient-rich West Greenland Irminger Waters. The second half of the talk will present an updated observational record of watermass property and transport changes in the Davis Strait from 2004-2022. Results show a freshening and increased transport of Arctic Water from Baffin Bay into the subpolar north Atlantic, with implications for ecosystem productivity in the NOW upstream of Davis Strait and deepwater formation in the Labrador Sea downstream of Davis Strait.
About Jed
Jed Lenetsky is a PhD candidate at the University of Colorado – Boulder’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, studying Arctic - subpolar ocean interactions in Baffin Bay. Before starting his PhD, Jed graduated from McGill University with an honors degree in Environmental Science and Geography and received a Master of Arts in Geography under the supervision of Prof. Mark Serreze at the University of Colorado – Boulder. During his undergraduate and master’s degrees, Jed’s research focused on the influence of the Bering Strait throughflow on sea ice conditions in the Arctic Ocean. In his free time, Jed enjoys spending time outside in Colorado and losing in online chess.
