Decline in plankton diversity and carbon flux with reduced sea ice extent along the Western Antarctic Peninsula ...

• Main Authors: Lin, Y., Marchetti, A., Meredith, M., Chaffron, S., Ducklow, H., Eveillard, D., Cassar, N., Li, Z., Schofield, O., Moreno, C., Delage, E.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Research 2021
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Antarc*; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17615/cjd3-dj21; https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/articles/bv73c870f

Since the middle of the past century, the Western Antarctic Peninsula has warmed rapidly with a significant loss of sea ice but the impacts on plankton biodiversity and carbon cycling remain an open question. Here, using a 5-year dataset of eukaryotic plankton DNA metabarcoding, we assess changes in biodiversity and net community production in this region. Our results show that sea-ice extent is a dominant factor influencing eukaryotic plankton community composition, biodiversity, and net community production. Species richness and evenness decline with an increase in sea surface temperature (SST). In regions with low SST and shallow mixed layers, the community was dominated by a diverse assemblage of diatoms and dinoflagellates. Conversely, less diverse plankton assemblages were observed in waters with higher SST and/or deep mixed layers when sea ice extent was lower. A genetic programming machine-learning model explained up to 80% of the net community production variability at the Western Antarctic ...