Water in the western Arctic Ocean tends to show lower dissolved vanadium concentrations than profiles observed elsewhere in the open ocean. Dissolved V in Pacific-derived basin waters was depleted by approximately 15–30% from the effective Pacific Ocean endmember. The depletion originates on western Arctic shelves and is not a result of mixing with a water mass with low V. While biological uptake may account for some of the V removal from the water column, adsorption onto particulate Fe is likely the dominant factor in removing V from shelf waters to the sediments. Once in the sediments, reduction should result in sequestering the V while Fe (and Mn) can be remobilized. A similar Fe-shuttling mechanism for V was previously described for the Peru margin (Scholz et al. 2011). Off the shelves, particulate Mn concentrations often exceed particulate Fe concentrations and thus may exert greater control on the V distribution in basin waters. Nonetheless, particulate V concentrations are much lower in basin waters and dissolved V thus behaves largely conservatively away from the shelf environment. Dissolved V concentrations in Atlantic-derived and Arctic deep waters were as much as 5 nmol/kg lower than those observed in deep waters of other ocean basins. The uniformity in deep water dissolved V between the sampled basins suggests that slow removal of V from the deep basins is probably not a factor in the deep water depletion. Vanadium-depleted incoming Atlantic waters (i.e., the source of Arctic deep waters) and/or removal of vanadium from incoming waters that pass over the shelves probably accounts for the deep water dissolved V depletion. Overall, our results demonstrate the utility of the V distribution as an additional tool to help understand the Arctic marine system. Furthermore, our work is pertinent to questions related to the net effect of marginal basin shelves on oceanic vanadium cycling, its isotopic balance, and how climate-induced changes in shelf biogeochemical cycling will impact vanadium cycling.

北冰洋西部的水溶解钒的浓度往往比在公海其他地方所观测到的低。有效太平洋末端成员消耗了源自太平洋的盆地水中溶解的V约15–30％。消耗源于北极西部的陆架，而不是与低V的水质混合的结果。虽然生物吸收可能是水柱中某些V去除的原因，但吸附在颗粒Fe上可能是去除V的主要因素从架子水到沉积物。一旦进入沉积物中，还原应导致螯合钒，而铁（和锰）可以被迁移。以前在秘鲁边缘描述了一种类似的钒的铁穿梭机制（Scholz等，2011）。下架，颗粒中的锰浓度通常超过颗粒中的铁浓度，因此可能会更好地控制流域水中的V分布。但是，盆地水中的颗粒物V浓度要低得多，因此溶解V的行为在远离货架环境的情况下在很大程度上是保守的。在大西洋和北极深水中溶解的V浓度比在其他海盆深水中观察到的溶解V浓度低5 nmol / kg。采样盆地之间深水溶解的V的均匀性表明，从深盆地中缓慢除去V可能不是深水耗竭的因素。贫乏的大西洋进入水域（即北极深水的来源）和/或从经过架子的进入水域中的钒去除可能是造成深层水溶解的V耗尽的原因。总体而言，我们的结果证明了V分布作为帮助了解北极海洋系统的附加工具的实用性。此外，我们的工作涉及与边际盆地陆架对海洋钒循环的净效应，其同位素平衡以及气候引起的陆架生物地球化学循环的变化将如何影响钒循环有关的问题。