Fig. 1. Schematic of surface circulation in Northeast Greenland (NEG).

The main circulation features and water masses that influence the NEG shelf and fjords (a) are the East Greenland Current system (EGC) comprising of the Shelf break EGC, the Outer EGC and the Polar Surface Water Jet (PSW Jet) shown in purple, and the Norwegian Atlantic Current (NAC), the West Spitsbergen Current (WSC), and Recirculating Atlantic Water (RAW), shown in red. Currents are based on Håvik et al.¹¹ and augmented with near-surface shelf circulation (red current curving north and east on the shelf) from Bourke et al.⁶⁸. Background shows bathymetry from the GEBCO 2020 product⁶⁵ where light shading represents shallow areas. The black dashed line indicates the near-shore region used for analysis of shelf waters throughout the current study. Blue, green and yellow polygons indicate the regions used in Fig. 5. Fjords included in the current study are shown in greater detail on panels b, c, d and e, on which the fjords have been labeled with their acronyms: DS - Dijmphna Sound, YS – Young Sound, GG – Godthåb Gulf, KFJ – Kaiser Franz Joseph fjord, KO – Kong Oscar fjord and SS – Scoresby Sound. From Copernicus Sentinel-2 image mosaic 2019.