| Summary: | The unprecedented pace of warming of the Arctic Ocean affect a wide range of pelagic processes, from microalgal production to fish recruitment. Sediment traps deployed on oceanographic moorings at the Beaufort Sea shelf break were used to investigate the impact of changes in ice cover and water temperature on the phenology of ice algae, phytoplankton and herbivorous copepods from the Calanus genus. Water temperature, salinity, microalgal fluxes and composition, and zooplankton abundance and composition in the traps were monitored over 5 of the 6 annual cycles from September 2009 to September 2015 (no data in 2014). Satellite-derived sea ice concentration and modeled snow depth were also retrieved for the same period. For 4 of the 5 years monitored, the upward migration of Calanus hyperboreus along with nauplii abundance were synchronized with peaks in diatoms export while the migration of Calanus glacialis preceded the peak in export of the ice algae Nitzschia frigida by 6 to 8 weeks. A disruption of these patterns was observed in 2013 as a mismatch between primary and secondary producers was observed. First, unusual warm water temperatures and significant diatom flux from October to December 2012 led to a shoaling of C. hyperboreus females winter vertical distribution and, thus, important egg spawning above 100 m with numerous nauplii swimming into the trap in March-April. Second, the late snow and ice melt in summer 2013 delayed the ice algae export, resulting in a mismatch with C. glacialis and N. frigida. As ice algae and phytoplankton are essential food source for the reproduction and development of Calanus copepods, a mismatch likely had negative impact on their recruitment and on the subsequent transfer of energy to carnivorous copepods, fish, and seabirds. Such mismatch events between phytoplankton and zooplankton will potentially occur more often owing to the rapidly changing environmental conditions in the Arctic Ocean. Le réchauffement que subit présentement l’Arctique va affecter un vaste éventail ...
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