Current status of phytoplankton community in the western Arctic Ocean

Abstract

Over the past several decades, higher temperatures have decreased the extent of sea-ice cover as well as its thickness in the Arctic Ocean. This way the overall amount of perennial sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, especially in the western Arctic Ocean became reduced (Perovich et al., 2009). The recent lower phytoplankton production and subsequent decline of benthic biomass might partly be due to a decrease in the phytoplankton biomass transported from lower latitudes in the Northern Bering sea, because the amount of phytoplankton production largely depended on the carbon biomass.Therefore, a decline of phytoplankton biomass from lower latitudes such as the Bering Sea could cause a decrease in phytoplankton production in higher latitudes such as the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas.