Response of nutrients and the surface phytoplankton community to ice melting in the central Arctic Ocean

Yanpei, Zhuang and Haiyan, Jin and Jianfang, Chen and Bin, Wang and Hongliang, Li and Fajin, Chen and Yong, Lu and Jie, Xu (2011) Response of nutrients and the surface phytoplankton community to ice melting in the central Arctic Ocean. Advances in Polar Science, 22 (4). pp. 266-272.

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Abstract

During the fourth Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition cruise in summer 2010, a time-series observation was carried out to examine the response of nutrients and phytoplankton community in the ice-water interface to the ice melting ice in the central Arctic Ocean. Phosphate and silicate in the ice-water interface were rich relative to dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), based on the Redfield ratio (16N:1P:16Si), suggesting that DIN was the potential limiting nutrient. DIN concentrations in the sea ice were about 3-4 times that in the surface seawater, indicating that melting ice delivered DIN to the surface water. Pigment analysis showed that fucoxanthin and chlorophyll a contribute to carotenoids and chlorophylls in particles. The mean concentrations of chlorophyll c, diatoxanthin, diadinoxanthin and fucoxanthin from 15 August to 18 August were 6 μg * m(-3), 22 μg * m(-3), 73 μg * m(-3) and 922 μg * m(-3), respectively, suggesting that diatoms dominated in the phytoplankton community composition. Furthermore, a notable enhancement in fucoxanthin and chlorophyll a during a large-scale ice melting was likely attributed to senescent diatoms released from the bottom sea-ice as well as phytoplankton diatoms growth in the water column due to the input of nutrients (i.e., DIN) and reducing light limitation from melting ice. Temporal distribution patterns of prasinoxanthin and lutein differed from fucoxanthin, indicating that the response of green algae and diatoms to ice melting were different.

Item Type:	Article
Related URLs:
Keywords:	Ice melting, photosynthetic pigments, nutrient limitation, Arctic
Subjects:	Natural Environment > Fauna Natural Environment > Oceans
Organizations:	Unspecified
Date Deposited:	20 Sep 2023 14:00
URI:	http://library.arcticportal.org/id/eprint/2437

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