Response of the Arctic Marine Inorganic Carbon System to Ice Algae and under-ice Phytoplankton Blooms ...

• Main Author: Whitehead, Jeremy
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Graduate Studies 2017
• Subjects: Oceanography; FOS Earth and related environmental sciences; Biogeochemistry; Environmental Sciences; Chemistry > Inorganic; inorganic carbon; ice algae; phytoplankton; Arctic; carbon dioxide; Phytoplankton; Qikiqtarjuaq; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/prism/27651; https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/11023/3712

Research on the inorganic carbon cycle in the Arctic winter to spring transition process has revealed that ice algae could play a role in the inorganic carbon cycling under sea ice. A ten-week case study was conducted near Qikiqtarjuaq, NU, Canada, in which dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and was collected from the water column. Samples were collected near the start of an ice algae bloom, and continued until early stages of an under-ice phytoplankton bloom. During the ice algae bloom period, there was no significant decrease in DIC or pCO2sw prior to sea ice melt. DIC fixation calculations show that previous studies may have overestimated the drawdown of DIC from ice algae, but that sloughing ice algae or an under-ice phytoplankton bloom can dramatically reduce DIC and pCO2sw. This case study provided insights that under-ice phytoplankton blooms are a more important biological mechanism preconditioning the Arctic surface mixed layer. ...