Polar atmosphere-ice-ocean Interactions: Impact on Climate and Ecology

• Main Authors: Dall'Osto, Manuel, Vaqué, Dolors, Berdalet, Elisa, Simó, Rafel, Young, Jun Yoon
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research 2018
• Subjects: Biogeochemistry; Aerosoles; Atmospheric chemistry; Polar biology; Antarctic; Arctic; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; Antarctica; antartic*; SCAR; Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/193277

Dall'Osto, Manuel . et. al.-- IX Simposio de Estudios Polares del Comité Español del Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), 5-7 September 2018, Madrid, España.-- 1 page Climate warming affects the development and distribution of sea ice, but at present the evidence of polar ecosystem feedbacks on climate through changes in the atmosphere is sparse. The topic of this presentation is the natural marine aerosol, which is of paramount importance at the global scale and influences the Earth’s radiative budget and the biogeochemical cycles. Currently there is a serious lack of aerosol data over polar regions in general and, in particular, over the polar sea-ice zones, which is one of the largest ecosystems on Earth, composed of a variety of habitats and organisms tolerating extreme conditions. As climatic changes are rapidly amplifying in polar zones, understanding biogeochemical processes involved in the air-sea-ice interface is crucial to pinpoint climate feedbacks. Our approach consists in synergistically using our competences in plankton ecology, ocean-atmosphere biogeochemistry and atmospheric chemistry. Main results of the research conducted on Arctic and Antartic regions and coordinated by the ICM-CSIC Barcelona (Spain) with interdisciplinary collaborations from UK, USA, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and Korea are shown. (1) Synergistic atmospheric and oceanic measurements in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, evidenced that the microbiota of sea ice and sea ice-influenced ocean constitute a previously unknown significant source of atmospheric organic nitrogen, including low molecular weight alkyl-amines. Given the keystone role of nitrogen compounds in aerosol formation, growth and neutralization, our findings call for greater diversity in modeling efforts linking the marine ecosystem to aerosol-mediated climate effects in the Southern Ocean. (2) Atmospheric new particle formation and growth significantly influences climate by supplying new seeds for cloud condensation and brightness; however, there is ...