Evidence for significant protein-like dissolved organic matter accumulation in Sea of Okhotsk sea ice

Absorption and fluorescence of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) in sea ice and surface waters in the southern Sea of Okhotsk was examined. Sea-water CDOM had featureless absorption increasing exponentially with shorter wavelengths. Sea ice showed distinct absorption peaks in the ultravio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of Glaciology
Main Authors: Granskog, Mats, Nomura, Daiki, Müller, Susann, Krell, Andreas, Toyota, Takenobu, Hattori, Hiroshi
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: INT GLACIOL SOC 2015
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Online Access:https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/37128/
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/37128/1/a69A002.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.44848
https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.44848.d001
Description
Summary:Absorption and fluorescence of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) in sea ice and surface waters in the southern Sea of Okhotsk was examined. Sea-water CDOM had featureless absorption increasing exponentially with shorter wavelengths. Sea ice showed distinct absorption peaks in the ultraviolet, especially in younger ice. Older first-year sea ice had relatively flat absorption spectra in the ultraviolet range. Parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) identified five fluorescent CDOM components, two humic-like and three protein-like. Sea water was largely governed by humic-like fluorescence. In sea ice, protein-like fluorescence was found in considerable excess relative to sea water.The accumulation of protein-like CDOM fluorescence in sea ice is likely a result of biological activity within the ice. Nevertheless, sea ice does not contribute excess CDOM during melt, but the material released will be of different composition than that present in the underlying waters. Thus, at least transiently, the CDOM introduced during sea-ice melt might provide a more labile source of fresher protein-like DOM to surface waters in the southern Sea of Okhotsk.KEYWORDS: sea ice, sea-ice ecology