Visual record of intertidal disturbance caused by drift ice in the spring on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia [v1; ref status: indexed, http://f1000r.es/3fb]

• Published in: F1000Research
• Main Authors: Willy Petzold, Maike T. Willers, Ricardo A. Scrosati
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: F1000 Research Ltd 2014
• Subjects: Global Change Ecology; Marine & Freshwater Ecology; Spatial & Landscape Ecology; Medicine; R; Science; Q; Canada; Cabot; Newfoundland; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.4146.1; https://doaj.org/article/2f7d976346bb4b48827920fff4cd49ff

In the early spring of 2014, an unusually large amount of sea ice drifted from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where it had been produced, towards the open Atlantic Ocean through the Cabot Strait, between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, Canada. In early April, significant amounts of drift ice reached the Atlantic coast of mainland Nova Scotia. The ice floes persisted in those coastal waters for up to 16 days, depending on the location. During that time, the ice fragments caused extensive physical disturbance in rocky intertidal communities, removing high quantities of seaweeds and invertebrates. For example, at a location where the ice stayed for 9 days, the loss of macroalgal and invertebrate biomass was almost total. At a location where the ice stayed for 4 days, losses were lower, albeit still high overall. Such a magnitude of disturbance is not common on this coast, as sea ice had not reached the surveyed locations in the previous 4–5 years. We suggest that the frequency of ice scour events may help to predict intertidal community structure. This notion could be tested through multiannual surveys of ice conditions and biological communities along the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia.