Abstract: Despite being one of the largest biomes on earth, sea ice ecosystems have only received intensive study over the past 30 years. Sea ice is a unique habitat for assemblages of bacteria, algae, protists, and invertebrates that grow within a matrix dominated by strong gradients in temperature, salinity, nutrients, and UV and visible radiation. A suite of physiological adaptations allow these organisms to thrive in ice, where their enormous biomass makes them a fundamental component of polar ecosystems. Sea ice algae are an important energy and nutritional source for invertebrates such as juvenile krill, accounting for up to 25% of total annual primary production in ice-covered waters. The ability of ice algae to produce large amounts of UV absorbing compounds such as mycosporine-like amino acids makes them even more important to organisms like krill that can incorporate these sunscreens into their own tissues. Furthermore, the nutrient and light conditions in which sea ice algae thrive induce them to synthesize enhanced concentrations of polyunsaturated fatty acids, a vital constituent of the diet of grazing organisms, especially during winter. Finally, sea ice bacteria and algae have become the focus of biotechnology, and are being considered as proxies of possible life forms on ice-covered extraterrestrial systems. An analysis of how the balance between sea ice and pelagic production might change under a warming scenario indicates that when current levels of primary production and changes in the areas of sea ice habitats are taken into account, the expected 25% loss of sea ice over the next century would increase primary production in the Southern Ocean by approximately 10%, resulting in a slight negative feedback on climate warming.

Abstract: Biogeochemical investigations of the upper layers of sea ice were made on layered summer ice floes collected from the Weddell Sea, Antarctica, from mid-February to March 1997. The surface layers had a clearly defined bottom layer immediately overlying a gap filled with seawater. Generally the gap covered rotten sea ice below. Using differences in algal biomass, mostly in the bottom layer of the surface ice overlying the gap, the floes were classified as low, moderate or high biomass. In addition, a floe with a re-frozen gap layer was studied. In the floes with the highest biomass, particulate organic carbon (POC) and nitrogen (PON) reached concentrations of up to 6000 µMC and 600 µMN in the bottom layer. In the upper part of the surface ice layer and the gap water, particulate and dissolved organic matter concentrations (POM, DOM) were clearly lower. High concentrations of POM were generally accompanied by high values of DOM although POM values generally exceeded DOM. All C and N contents of organic matter were significantly correlated. In gap waters, POM was low but still clearly higher than in the surrounding seawater, whereas DOM was in the range of seawater concentrations. Most POC/PON and C/chlorophyll a ratios pointed to an actively growing algae community, whereas the higher and more variable DOC/DON ratios reflected the various sources influencing DOM composition. Nitrate and silicate closely followed the signature of salinity, reaching in some gap water samples values similar to seawater concentrations. In some samples, in particular from the upper part of the surface ice layer, nitrate was totally exhausted. The distribution of the regenerated nutrients ammonium and phosphate was totally different from that of nitrate and silicate, reaching values of up to 15.9 and 9.08 µM, respectively. The bottom ice layer of the floe with the re-frozen gap layer had a high biomass similar to that of the high-biomass ice floe. DOC concentrations were lower, and DON maximum was not clearly linked with DOC maximum, but instead was associated with high ammonium and phosphate concentrations. The significant correlations between POM and DOM as well as between nitrate and silicate and between the regenerated nutrients ammonium and phosphate indicate that the gap-layer floes are semi-enclosed, highly productive habitats that still maintain high biomass during freezing. They are ubiquitous in the Antarctic pack-ice zone and important features that support high algae standing stocks.