Increased runoff from Siberian rivers leads to Arctic wide freshening

The effects of contemporary increases in riverine freshwater into the Arctic Ocean are estimated from ocean model simulations, using two runoff data sets. One runoff data set which is based on older climatological data, which has no inter-annual variability after 2007 and as such does not represent the observed increases in river runoff into the Arctic. The other data set comes from a hydrological model developed for the Arctic drainage basin, which includes contemporary changes in the climate. In the pan-Arctic this new data set represents an approximately 11% increase in runoff, compared with the older climatological data. Comparing two ocean model runs forced with the different runoff data sets, overall changes in different freshwater markers across the basin were found to be between 5-10%, depending on the area investigated. The strongest increases were seen from the Siberian rivers, which in turn caused the strongest freshening in the Eastern Arctic.