Spring time production of bottom ice algae in the landfast sea ice zone at Barrow, Alaska

Abstract

The primary production of bottom ice algae is an important food source for sympagic, pelagic and benthic organisms in the Arctic Ocean as well as Antarctic Ocean. Using 13C-15N isotope tracers, the recent ice algal production at Barrow during the spring season was lower in 2003 than three decades ago, although the maximum chlorophyll-a concentration for the bottom ice algae was similar to the values from previous studies. Estimated recent new and total production rates of the ice algae were 0.8 g C m-2 yr-1 and 2.0 g C m-2 yr-1 respectively, while the rates of water column phytoplankton were 0.2 g C m-2 yr-1 and 0.7 g C m-2 yr-1 for the spring sampling period in 2003. The ice algae contributed 74 % of the pelagic primary production under the landfast sea ice at Barrow before the phytoplankton spring bloom. At the end of the season in 2003, a high carbon allocation of lipids in the ice algae was found. Three possible explanations- nutrient depletion, increasing light, and/or changes in species composition- were suggested for the high carbon incorporation into lipids. This high lipid synthesis of the bottom ice algae might be significant to zooplankton and benthic fauna grazers because lipids are the most energy dense biomolecules.