Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Much of the Antarctic coast is covered by seasonal landfast sea ice (fast ice), which serves as an important habitat for ice algae. Fast‐ice algae provide a key early season food source for pelagic and benthic food webs, and contribute to biogeochemical cycling in Antarctic coastal ecosystems. Summertime fast ice is undergoing a decline, leading to more seasonal fast ice with unknown impacts on interconnected Earth system processes. Our understanding of the spatiotemporal variability of Antarctic fast ice, and its impact on polar ecosystems is currently limited. Evaluating the overall productivity of fast‐ice algae has historically been hampered by limitations in observations and models. By linking new fast‐ice extent maps with a one‐dimensional sea‐ice biogeochemical model, we provide the first estimate of the spatio‐seasonal variability of Antarctic fast‐ice algal gross primary production (GPP) and its annual primary production on a circum‐Antarctic scale. Experiments conducted for the 2005–2006 season provide a mean fast ice‐algal production estimate of 2.8 Tg C/y. This estimate represents about 12% of overall Southern Ocean sea‐ice algae production (estimated in a previous study), with the mean fast‐ice algal production per area being 3.3 times higher than that of pack ice. Our Antarctic fast‐ice GPP estimates are probably underestimated in the Ross Sea and Weddell Sea sectors because the sub‐ice platelet layer habitats and their high biomass are not considered.
DOI: 10.1029/2024jc021348
Institutions: University of Tasmania, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Australian Antarctic Division, Australian Research Council, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norwegian Polar Institute
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,880
Awards: Advancing Antarctic science with a new high altitude platform capability, An autonomous sea state monitoring system for Australia's research fleet, The puzzle of landfast sea ice: ‘Fast’ ice and near-term climate impacts., G7427182842, G7544070005, Linking wave–sea ice feedbacks to rapid ice retreat, Ocean fertilisation: a positive effect from Antarctica’s great thaw?
OpenAlex ID: W4403157464