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The diversity, abundance and fate of ice algae and phytoplankton in the Bering Sea

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Abstract

Despite being an essential part of the marine food web during periods of ice cover, sea ice algae have not been studied in any detail in the Bering Sea. In this study, we investigated the diversity, abundance and ultimate fate of ice algae in the Bering Sea using sea ice, water and sub-ice sediment trap samples collected during two spring periods in 2008 and 2009: ice growth (March–mid-April) and ice melt (mid-April–May). The total ice algal species inventory included 68 species, dominated by typical Arctic ice algal diatom taxa. Only three species were determined from the water samples; we interpret the strong overlap in species as seeding of algal cells from the sea ice. Algal abundances in the ice exceeded 107 cells l−1 in the bottom 2-cm layer and were on average three orders of magnitude higher than in the water column. The vertical flux of algal cells beneath the ice during the period of ice melt (>108 cells m−2 day−1) exceeded export during the ice growth period by one order of magnitude; the vertical flux during both periods can only be sustained by the release of algae from the ice. Differences in the relative species proportions of algae among sample types indicated that the fate of the released ice algae was species specific, with some taxa contributing to seeding in the water column, while other taxa were preferentially exported.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all scientists and crew involved in the Bering Sea Ecosystem Study, who helped with sample collection for this project. We thank Ken Severin for his help with the scanning electron microscope. Thanks to Cecilie von Quillfeldt, as well as colleagues at the 2013 Polar Marine Diatom Taxonomy and Ecology Workshop in Cardiff, Wales, for their assistance with diatom taxonomy and identification. We thank Mike Lomas for data on the water column structure. We appreciate the help of Katrin Iken and R. Eric Collins with this manuscript. The Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation supported this work through Grant ARC-0732767. Further support was provided through a grant from the Center for Global Change and Arctic Research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 505 S Chandlar Dr, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA

    Anna Szymanski & Rolf Gradinger

  2. Institute of Marine Research, P.O. Box 6404, 9294, Tromsø, Norway

    Rolf Gradinger

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  1. Anna Szymanski
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  2. Rolf Gradinger
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Correspondence to Anna Szymanski.

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Supplementary Fig. 1

Primary ice type at stations sampled during periods of ice growth and ice melt. Values for ice types: 1 - frazil, 2 - grease, 3 - brash ice, 4 - dark nilas, 5 - light nilas, 6 – pancakes, 7 - young grey ice, 8 - young grey white ice, 9 - first year white ice. (TIFF 67 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Relative abundance (% of total) of diatom species in ice, water and sediment trap samples. Species shown are those contributing >5 % to the dissimilarity among sample types based on SIMPER analysis. Upper section shows diatom species composition during the ice growth period, lower section shows species composition during the ice melt period (TIFF 177 kb)

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Szymanski, A., Gradinger, R. The diversity, abundance and fate of ice algae and phytoplankton in the Bering Sea. Polar Biol 39, 309–325 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1783-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1783-z

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