2002 |
|
|
Mock, T., Dieckmann, G. S., Haas, C., Krell, A., Tison, J. - L., Belem, A. L., et al. (2002). Micro-optodes in sea ice: a new approach to investigate oxygen dynamics during sea ice formation. Aquat Microb Ecol, 29(3), 297–306.
Abstract: Oxygen micro-optodes were used to measure oxygen dynamics directly within the microstructure of sea ice by freezing the sensors into the ice during its formation. The experiment was conducted in a 4 m³ mesocosm filled with artificial seawater and inoculated with a unialgal culture of the common Antarctic ice diatom Fragilariopsis cylindrus (Bacillariophyceae) to a final chlorophyll a (chl a) concentration of 11 µg 1?¹. Ice growth was initiated 7 d after inoculation by reducing the air temperature to -10 plus or minus 2 degree C and terminated 17 d later. The final ice thickness was 27 cm. One optode was frozen into grease ice and 2 others into the skeletal layer of the growing ice sheet. Increasing oxygen concentrations during ice crystal formation at the water surface and the ice-water interface revealed a strong inclusion of oxygen, which was either physically trapped and/or the result of photosynthesising diatoms. The major portion of oxygen was present as gas bubbles due to super-saturation as a result of increasing salinity and oxygen production by diatoms. An increase in salinity due to a concurrent decrease in ice temperatures during subsequent sea ice development reduced the maximum concentration of dissolved oxygen within brine. Thus, dissolved oxygen concentrations decreased over time, whereas gaseous oxygen was released to the atmosphere and seawater. The sensors are a significant advance on more conventional microelectrodes, because the recordings can be temperature and salinity compensated in order to obtain precise measurements of oxygen dynamics with regard to total (dissolved and gaseous) and dissolved oxygen in sea ice. Optodes do not consume oxygen during measuremnet over a long period under extreme conditions, which is another advantage for long-term deployment in the field.
Keywords: Fragilariopsis cylindrus; Oxygen; Methods; Micro-optodes; Sea ice; Biogeochemistry; Diatoms; Algae; Chlorophyll; Photosynthesis; Salinity effects; Sea water; Marine ecosystems; Chlorophylls; Dissolved oxygen; Gases; Epontic environment; Electrodes; Sensors; Brines; Ice-water interface; Ice formation; Bacillariophyceae
Notes: Marine
|
|
|
|
Thomas, D. N., & Dieckmann, G. S. (2002). Antarctic sea ice – a habitat for extremophiles. Science, 295(5555), 641–644.
Abstract: The pack ice of Earth's polar oceans appears to be frozen white desert, devoid of life. However, beneath the snow lies a unique habitat for a group of bacteria and microscopic plants and animals that are encased in an ice matrix at low temperatures and light levels, with the only liquid being pockets of concentrated brines. Survival in these conditions requires a complex suite of physiological and metabolic adaptations, but sea-ice organisms thrive in the ice, and their prolific growth ensures they play a fundamental role in polar ecosystems. Apart from their ecological importance, the bacterial and algae species found in sea ice have become the focus for novel biotechnology, as well as being considered proxies for possible life forms on ice- covered extraterrestrial bodies.
Keywords: Microorganisms; Sea ice; Ecosystems; Polar zones; Antarctic zone; Epontic organisms; Sea ice ecology; Antarctic sea ice; Marine microorganisms; Marine ecosystems; Bacteria; Algae; Psychrophilic bacteria; extremophiles; Ps; Antarctica
Notes: Review
|
|
|
|
Thomas, D. N., & Dieckmann, G. S. (2002). Biogeochemistry of Antarctic sea ice. Oceanogr Mar Biol Annu Rev, 40, 143–169.
Abstract: Antarctic sea ice at its maximum extent in winter covers 40% of the Southern Ocean in a frozen layer, on average, 1 m thick. Sea ice is not solid, rather it is an ice crystal matrix permeated by a labyrinth of brine filled channels and pores in which life thrives. Organisms are constrained by a set of physicochemical factors quite unlike anything they encounter in the plankton from where they are recruited. Because sea ice is increasingly viewed as a suitable proxy for life in previous periods of the Earth's history, and even for astrobiology, it is pertinent that the physicochemical constraints acting upon sea-ice biology are better understood. The, largely microbial, network that develops in the ice itself imparts a unique chemistry that influences the nature and chemical composition of biogenic material released from the ice. This chemistry can result in the export of material to the sediments with distinctive chemical signatures that are useful tools for reconstructing past sea-ice cover of the oceans. This review synthesises information on inorganic nutrient, dissolved organic matter and dissolved gases from a variety of Antarctic ice habitats.
Keywords: Sea ice; Biogeochemistry; Nutrients (mineral); Dissolved gases; Dissolved organic matter; Ps; Antarctic Ocean
Notes: Review; Marine
|
|
2001 |
|
|
Giannelli, V., Thomas, D. N., Haas, C., Kattner, G., Kennedy, H., & Dieckmann, G. S. (2001). Behaviour of dissolved organic matter and inorganic nutrients during experimental sea-ice formation. Ann Glaciol, 33(1), 317–321.
Abstract: It is well established that during sea-ice formation, crystals aggregate into a solid matrix, and dissolved sea-water constituents, including inorganic nutrients, are rejected from the ice matrix. However, the behaviour of dissolved organic matter (DOM) during ice formation and growth has not been studied to date. DOM is the primary energetic substrate for microbial heterotrophic activity in sea water and sea ice, and therefore it is at the base of the trophic fluxes within the microbial food web. The aim of our study was to compare the behaviour of DOM and inorganic nutrients during formation and growth of sea ice. Experiments were conducted in a large indoor ice-tank facility (Hamburg Ship Model Basin, Germany) at -15°C. Three 1 m³ tanks, to which synthetic sea water, nutrients and dissolved organic compounds (diatom-extracted DOM) had been added, were sampled over a period of 5 days during sea-ice formation. Samples were collected throughout the experiment from water underlying the ice, and at the end from the ice as well. Brine was obtained from the ice by centrifuging ice cores. Inorganic nutrients (nitrate and phosphate) were substantially enriched in brine in comparison to water and ice phases, consistent with the processes of ice formation and brine rejection. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was also enriched in brine but was more variable and enriched in comparison to a dilution line. No difference in bacteria numbers was observed between water, ice and brine. No bacteria growth was measured, and this therefore had no influence on the measurable DOC levels. We conclude that the incorporation of dissolved organic compounds in newly forming ice is conservative. However, since the proportions of DOC in the brine were partially higher than those of the inorganic nutrients, concentrating effects of DOC in brine might be different compared to salts.
Notes: Conference
|
|
|
|
Haas, C., Thomas, D. N., & Bareiss, J. (2001). Surface properties and processes of perennial Antarctic sea ice in summer. J Glaciol, 47(159), 613–625.
Abstract: Ice-core and snow data from the Amundsen, Bellingshausen and Weddell Seas, Antarctica, show that the formation of superimposed ice and the development of seawater-filled gap layers with high algal standing stocks is typical of the perennial sea ice in summer. The coarse-grained and dense snow had salinities mostly below 0.1ppt. A layer of fresh superimposed ice had a mean thickness of 0.04-0.12 m. Gap layers 0.04-0.08 m thick extended downwards from 0.02 to 0.14 m below the water level. These gaps were populated by diatom standing stocks up to 439 ?g L?¹ chlorophyll a. We propose a comprehensive heuristic model of summer processes, where warming and the reversal of temperature gradients cause major transformations in snow and ice properties. The warming also causes the reopening of incompletely frozen slush layers caused by flood-freeze cycles during winter. Alternatively, superimposed ice forms at the cold interface between snow and slush in the case of flooding with negative freeboard. Combined, these explain the initial formation of gap layers by abiotic means alone. The upward growth of superimposed ice above the water level competes with a steady submergence of floes due to bottom and internal melting and accumulation of snow.
Notes: IPØ/Tvärrminne
|
|
