Arctic mid-winter phytoplankton growth revealed by autonomous profilers
Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 2020 papers
Abstract
It is widely believed that during winter and spring, Arctic marine phytoplankton cannot grow until sea ice and snow cover start melting and transmit sufficient irradiance, but there is little observational evidence for that paradigm. To explore the life of phytoplankton during and after the polar night, we used robotic ice-avoiding profiling floats to measure ocean optics and phytoplankton characteristics continuously through two annual cycles in Baffin Bay, an Arctic sea that is covered by ice for 7 months a year. We demonstrate that net phytoplankton growth occurred even under 100% ice cover as early as February and that it resulted at least partly from photosynthesis. This highlights the adaptation of Arctic phytoplankton to extreme low-light conditions, which may be key to their survival before seeding the spring bloom.
Related Papers
- → Benefits, costs and taxonomic distribution of marine phytoplankton body size(2016)93 cited
- → Hematological reactions in the inhabitants of the Arctic on a polar night and a polar day(2020)19 cited
- → The structure and dynamics of phytoplankton assemblages from the inner part of the Thermaikos Gulf, Greece. I. Phytoplankton composition and biomass from May 1988 to April 1989(1990)26 cited
- Changes in structure of the phytoplankton in the Barje Reservoir, Serbia(2004)
- In vitro iron enrichment experiments in the Prydz Bay, the Southern Ocean: A test of the iron hypothesis(2009)