The Arctic icescape is rapidly transforming from a thicker multiyear ice cover to a thinner and largely seasonal first-year ice cover with significant consequences for Arctic primary production. One critical challenge is to understand how productivity will change within the next decades. Recent studies have reported extensive phytoplankton blooms beneath ponded sea ice during summer, indicating that satellite-based Arctic annual primary production estimates may be significantly underestimated. Here we present a unique time-series of a phytoplankton spring bloom observed beneath snow-covered Arctic pack ice. The bloom, dominated by the haptophyte algae Phaeocystis pouchetii, caused near depletion of the surface nitrate inventory and a decline in dissolved inorganic carbon by 16 ± 6 g C m−2. Ocean circulation characteristics in the area indicated that the bloom developed in situ despite the snow-covered sea ice. Leads in the dynamic ice cover provided added sunlight necessary to initiate and sustain the bloom. Phytoplankton blooms beneath snow-covered ice might become more common and widespread in the future Arctic Ocean with frequent lead formation due to thinner and more dynamic sea ice despite projected increases in high-Arctic snowfall. This could alter productivity, marine food webs and carbon sequestration in the Arctic Ocean.

Analysis of the organic geochemical biomarker IP 25 in marine sediments is an established method for carrying out palaeo sea ice reconstructions for the Arctic. Such reconstructions cover timescales from decades back to the early Pleistocene, and are critical for understanding past climate conditions on Earth and for informing climate prediction models. Key attributes of IP 25 include its strict association with Arctic sea ice together with its ubiquity and stability in underlying marine sediments; however, the sources of IP 25 have remained undetermined. Here we report the identification of IP 25 in three (or four) relatively minor (o5%) sea ice diatoms isolated from mixed assemblages collected from the Canadian Arctic. In contrast, IP 25 was absent in the dominant taxa. Chemical and taxonomical investigations suggest that the IP 25 -containing taxa represent the majority of producers and are distributed pan-Arctic, thus establishing the widespread applicability of the IP 25 proxy for palaeo Arctic sea ice reconstruction.

Meltwater discharge from tidewater glaciers impacts the adjacent marine environment. Due to the global warming, tidewater glaciers are retreating and will eventually terminate on land. Yet, the mechanisms through which meltwater runoff and subglacial discharge from tidewater glaciers influence marine primary production remain poorly understood, as data in close proximity to glacier fronts are scarce. Here, we show that subglacial meltwater discharge and bedrock characteristics of the catchments control the phytoplankton growth environment inside the fjord, based on data collected in close proximity to tidewater glacier fronts in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard from 26 to 31 July 2017. In the southern part of the inner fjord, glacial meltwater from subglacial discharge was rich in fine sediments derived from erosion of Devonian Old Red Sandstone and carbonate rock deposits, limiting light availability for phytoplankton (0.6 mg m −3 Chl a on average, range 0.2-1.9 mg m −3). In contrast, coarser sediments derived from gneiss and granite bedrock and lower subglacial discharge rates were associated with more favourable light conditions facilitating a local phytoplankton bloom in the northern part of the inner fjord with mean Chl a concentration of 2.8 mg m −3 (range 1.3-7.4 mg m −3). In the northern part, glacier meltwater was a direct source of silicic acid through weathering of the silica-rich gneiss and granite bedrock. Upwelling of the subglacial freshwater discharge plume at the Kronebreen glacier front in the southern part entrained large volumes of ambient, nutrient-rich bottom waters which led to elevated surface concentrations of ammonium, nitrate, and partly silicic acid. Total dissolved inorganic nitrogen transported to the surface with the upwelling of the subglacial discharge plume has a significant potential to enhance summer primary production in Kongsfjorden, with ammonium released from the seafloor being of particular importance. The transition from tidewater to land-terminating glaciers may, thus, reduce the input of nutrients to the surface layer with negative consequences for summer productivity.

During the Norwegian young sea ICE expedition (N‐ICE2015) from January to June 2015 the pack ice in the Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard was studied during four drifts between 83° and 80°N. This pack ice consisted of a mix of second year, first year, and young ice. The physical properties and ice algal community composition was investigated in the three different ice types during the winter‐spring‐summer transition. Our results indicate that algae remaining in sea ice that survived the summer melt season are subsequently trapped in the upper layers of the ice column during winter and may function as an algal seed repository. Once the connectivity in the entire ice column is established, as a result of temperature‐driven increase in ice porosity during spring, algae in the upper parts of the ice are able to migrate toward the bottom and initiate the ice algal spring bloom. Furthermore, this algal repository might seed the bloom in younger ice formed in adjacent leads. This mechanism was studied in detail for the dominant ice diatom Nitzschia frigida. The proposed seeding mechanism may be compromised due to the disappearance of older ice in the anticipated regime shift toward a seasonally ice‐free Arctic Ocean.

During two consecutive cruises to the Eastern Central Arctic in late summer 2012, we observed floating algal aggregates in the melt-water layer below and between melting ice floes of first-year pack ice. The macroscopic (1-15 cm in diameter) aggregates had a mucous consistency and were dominated by typical ice-associated pennate diatoms embedded within the mucous matrix. Aggregates maintained buoyancy and accumulated just above a strong pycnocline that separated meltwater and seawater layers. We were able, for the first time, to obtain quantitative abundance and biomass estimates of these aggregates. Although their biomass and production on a square metre basis was small compared to ice-algal blooms, the floating ice-algal aggregates supported high levels of biological activity on the scale of the individual aggregate. In addition they constituted a food source for the ice-associated fauna as revealed by pigments indicative of zooplankton grazing, high abundance of naked ciliates, and ice amphipods associated with them. During the Arctic melt season, these floating aggregates likely play an important ecological role in an otherwise impoverished near-surface sea ice environment. Our findings provide important observations and measurements of a unique aggregate-based habitat during the 2012 record sea ice minimum year.

The Arctic system is one of the regions most influenced by ongoing global climate change, but there are still critical gaps in our knowledge regarding a substantial number of biological processes. This is especially true for processes taking place during the Arctic winter but also for seasonal processes, such as the dynamics of intra-annual meroplankton occurrence. Here, we report on a 1-year study of meroplankton seasonal variability from a fjordic system in the Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard. The study combines an examination of phytoplankton, zooplankton, and hard bottom benthic settlement with measurements of environmental parameters (e.g., water temperature, particulate organic matter, and dissolved organic carbon).Samples were taken on a bi-weekly or monthly basis, and a total of 11 taxa representing six phyla of meroplankton were recorded over a 1-year period from January to December 2007. The occurrence of benthic larvae varied between the seasons, reaching a maximum in both abundance and taxon richness in late spring through early summer. Meroplanktonic larvae were absent in winter. However, settlement of benthic organisms was also recorded during the winter months (February and March), which indicates individual trade-offs related to timing of reproduction and competition. In addition, it suggests that these larvae are not relying on higher summer nutrient concentrations, but instead are dependent on alternative food sources. In parallel with meroplankton abundance, all other measured parameters, both biological (e.g., phyto-and zooplankton abundance and diversity) and physical (e.g., particulate organic matter), exhibited seasonal variability with peaks in the warmer months of the year.

Identification of C 25 highly branched isoprenoid (HBI) alkenes in diatoms of the genus Rhizosolenia in polar and sub-polar marine phytoplankton., Organic Geochemistry (2017),

Sea ice, a characteristic feature of polar waters, is home to diverse microbial communities. Sea-ice picoeukaryotes (unicellular eukaryotes with cell size o3 lm) have received little attention compared with diatoms that dominate the spring bloom in Arctic first-year sea ice. Here, we investigated the abundance of all picoeukaryotes, and of 11 groups (chlorophytes, cryptophytes, bolidophytes, haptophytes, Pavlovaphyceae, Phaeocystis spp., pedinellales, stramenopiles groups MAST-1, MAST-2 and MAST-6 and Syndiniales Group II) at 13 first-year sea-ice stations localized in Barrow Strait and in the vicinity of Cornwallis Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago. We applied Catalyzed Reporter Deposition-Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization to identify selected groups at a single cell level. Pavlovaphyceae and stramenopiles from groups MAST-2 and MAST-6 were for the first time reported from sea ice. Total numbers of picoeukaryotes were significantly higher in the vicinity of Cornwallis Island than in Barrow Strait. Similar trend was observed for all the groups except for haptophytes. Chlorophytes and cryptophytes were the dominant plastidic, and MAST-2 most numerous aplastidic of all the groups investigated. Numbers of total picoeukaryotes, chlorophytes and MAST-2 stramenopiles were positively correlated with the thickness of snow cover. All studied algal and MAST groups fed on bacteria. Presence of picoeukaryotes from various trophic groups (mixotrophs, phagotrophic and parasitic heterotrophs) indicates the diverse ecological roles picoeukaryotes have in sea ice. Yet, 450% of total sea-ice picoeukaryote cells remained unidentified, highlighting the need for further study of functional and phylogenetic sea-ice diversity, to elucidate the risks posed by ongoing Arctic changes.