Summary
First- and multi-year sea ice are colonized by microalgae, whose biomass modifies the spectral distribution of underice downwelling irradiance. It is proposed that an index of algal biomass in the first-year ice may be derived from the ratio of underice irradiance at a wavelength where absorption by chlorophyll a is high to a wavelength where absorption by the photosynthetic pigments is low and transmission through the ice is high. In southeastern Hudson Bay (Canadian Arctic), the irradiance ratio (671∶540 nm) accounts for 55% of the variance in chlorophyll a, indicating that the in situ biomass of algae in first-year ice can be estimated from spectral measurements of underice downwelling irradiance.
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Contribution to the programme of GIROQ (Groupe interuniversitaire de recherches océanographiques du Québec)
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Legendre, L., Gosselin, M. In situ spectroradiometric estimation of microalgal biomass in first-year sea ice. Polar Biol 11, 113–115 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00234273
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00234273