Arctic mid-winter phytoplankton growth revealed by autonomous profilers

It is widely believed that during winter and spring, Arctic marine phytoplankton cannot grow until sea ice and snow cover start melting and transmit sufficient irradiance, but there is little observational evidence for that paradigm. To explore the life of phytoplankton during and after the polar ni...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science Advances
Main Authors: Randelhoff, Achim, Lacour, Léo, Marec, Claudie, Leymarie, Edouard, Lagunas, José, Xing, Xiaogang, Darnis, Gérald, Penkerc’h, Christophe, Sampei, Makoto, Fortier, Louis, D’ortenzio, Fabrizio, Claustre, Hervé, Babin, Marcel
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2020
Subjects:
envir
geo
Arctic
Baffin Bay
Baffin
Phytoplankton
polar night
Sea ice
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc2678
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00652/76416/77468.pdf
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00652/76416/77469.pdf
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00652/76416/
Description
Summary:It is widely believed that during winter and spring, Arctic marine phytoplankton cannot grow until sea ice and snow cover start melting and transmit sufficient irradiance, but there is little observational evidence for that paradigm. To explore the life of phytoplankton during and after the polar night, we used robotic ice-avoiding profiling floats to measure ocean optics and phytoplankton characteristics continuously through two annual cycles in Baffin Bay, an Arctic sea that is covered by ice for 7 months a year. We demonstrate that net phytoplankton growth occurred even under 100% ice cover as early as February and that it resulted at least partly from photosynthesis. This highlights the adaptation of Arctic phytoplankton to extreme low-light conditions, which may be key to their survival before seeding the spring bloom.

Similar Items