A REASSESSMENT OF THE EURASIAN RIVER INPUT OF WATER, SEDIMENT, MAJOR ELEMENTS, AND NUTRIENTS TO THE ARCTIC-OCEAN

A new assessment of water, suspended sediment, major elements, and nut rients discharged by rivers into the Arctic ocean is made. The compari son of this main characteristics of the river basins and water composi tions between the two large Eurasian regions located westward and east ward of the Lena River shows some significant differences, Some easter n Siberian rivers such as Yana, Alazcya, Indigirka, Kolyma)... are eve n more similar to the Canadian Arctic rivers than to those located to the west of the Lena river, This river flows at the boundary between t he Eurasian and North America tectonic plates, We concluded that tecto nic/topographic factors could partly control the composition in suspen ded sediment of the Eurasian rivers, Tentative mass balances of major elements and silica do not indicate any significant trapping over the Arctic shelf, The river input of nutrients is shown to play a minor ro le in the primary productivity of this area.