Volume of the Ob Bay waters as a factor of the formation of the hydrochemical inhomogeneity

This report presents a new analysis of the results of two hydrochemical surveys over the Ob Bay in 2010 performed by the Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) and the Institute of Oceanology (IO RAS). The unique world feature of the Ob River-Ob Bay system is shown. The water volume in the bay exceeds the average annual runoff of the Ob River, being somewhat under the total runoff of all the inflowing rivers. Because of this, the complete renovation of the waters in the bay requires a long time. The within-year distribution of the runoff is characterized by both the flood waters and those of the Ob River winter runoff characterized by much different hydrochemical parameters registered even in the course of summer surveys in the bay. This fact, but not the biological transformation of the waters, as assumed previously, is the primary cause of the variability of the water composition in the bay. The summer waters of the Ob River reach the sea-ward boundary of the bay only in the next spring, enter the Kara Sea with the spring flood, and form lenses of desalinated waters in the sea. The autumn expeditions by the IO RAS found that the waters in the lenses were quite similar to the autumn waters in the bay, although these were the Ob River waters of different years, which was disregarded formerly.