THE BARENTS SEA 



81 



Temperature and saline conditions 



In the western part of the Barents Sea (Fig. 24) where the warm Atlantic 

 waters enter, the whole water column has a temperature above zero even in 

 winter time. Following the bottom contour the Atlantic waters penetrate into 

 the Barents Sea in four streams — the northern one at 80° N, the middle one 

 along the 75° parallel, the main and most powerful stream between the 71° 

 and 72° parallels while the fourth stream flows close to the Murman coast. In 



Fig. 23. 1 Main directions of currents; 2 Zone of polar front; 

 3 Regions of increased biomass and feeding aggregations 

 (Zenkevitch). 



the north, east and southeast of the Sea these waters are cooled and remain 

 below zero from surface to floor all the year round. This is clearly shown from 

 the annual averages of temperature ranges at different levels (Fig. 25). 



Thus a considerable change of the warm Atlantic waters which have flowed 

 into the cold local ones takes place in the Barents Sea. In the middle of the 

 Sea in its northern and eastern regions only a thin surface layer is heated in 

 summer. At depths of 10 to 25 m the temperature is already below zero. 

 Only in the most northeasterly part, between Novaya Zemlya and Franz 

 Joseph Land, at depths of 200 to 250 m can a temperature above zero (+ 1° C) 

 be observed at a high salinity (35% ). These are Atlantic waters which 



