Description: Recent studies on the impacts of ocean acidification on pelagic communities have identified changes in carbon to nutrient dynamics with related shifts in elemental stoichiometry. In principle, mesocosm experiments provide the opportunity of determining temporal dynamics of all relevant carbon and nutrient pools and, thus, calculating elemental budgets. In practice, attempts to budget mesocosm enclosures are often hampered by uncertainties in some of the measured pools and fluxes, in particular due to uncertainties in constraining air–sea gas exchange, particle sinking, and wall growth. In an Arctic mesocosm study on ocean acidification applying KOSMOS (Kiel Off-Shore Mesocosms for future Ocean Simulation), all relevant element pools and fluxes of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus were measured, using an improved experimental design intended to narrow down the mentioned uncertainties. Water-column concentrations of particulate and dissolved organic and inorganic matter were determined daily. New approaches for quantitative estimates of material sinking to the bottom of the mesocosms and gas exchange in 48 h temporal resolution as well as estimates of wall growth were developed to close the gaps in element budgets. However, losses elements from the budgets into a sum of insufficiently determined pools were detected, and are principally unavoidable in mesocosm investigation. The comparison of variability patterns of all single measured datasets revealed analytic precision to be the main issue in determination of budgets. Uncertainties in dissolved organic carbon (DOC), nitrogen (DON) and particulate organic phosphorus (POP) were much higher than the summed error in determination of the same elements in all other pools. With estimates provided for all other major elemental pools, mass balance calculations could be used to infer the temporal development of DOC, DON and POP pools. Future elevated pCO2 was found to enhance net autotrophic community carbon uptake in two of the three experimental phases but did not significantly affect particle elemental composition. Enhanced carbon consumption appears to result in accumulation of dissolved organic carbon under nutrient-recycling summer conditions. This carbon over-consumption effect becomes evident from mass balance calculations, but was too small to be resolved by direct measurements of dissolved organic matter. Faster nutrient uptake by comparatively small algae at high CO2 after nutrient addition resulted in reduced production rates under future ocean CO2 conditions at the end of the experiment. This CO2 mediated shift towards smaller phytoplankton and enhanced cycling of dissolved matter restricted the development of larger phytoplankton, thus pushing the system towards a retention type food chain with overall negative effects on export potential.

Description: The increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere caused by burning fossil fuels leads to increasing pCO2 and decreasing pH in the world oceans. These changes may have severe consequences for marine biota, especially in cold-water ecosystems due to higher solubility of CO2. However, studies on the response of mesozooplankton communities to elevated pCO2 are yet lacking. In order to test whether abundance and taxonomic composition change with pCO2, we have sampled nine mesocosms, which were deployed in Kongsfjorden, an Arctic fjord at Svalbard, and were adjusted to eight CO2 concentrations, initially ranging from 185 μatm to 1420 μatm. Samples were taken weekly over a six-week period with an Apstein net (55 μm mesh size) in all mesocosms and the surrounding fjord. In addition, sediment trap samples, taken every second day in the mesocosms, were analyzed to account for losses due to vertical migration and mortality. The taxonomic analysis revealed that meroplanktonic larvae (cirripeds, polychaetes, bivalves, gastropod, and decapods) dominated in the mesocosms while copepods (Calanus spp., Oithona similis, Acartia longiremis and Microsetella norvegica) were found in lower abundances. In the fjord copepods prevailed for most of our study. With time, abundance and taxonomic composition developed similarly in all mesocosms; the pCO2 had no significant effect on the overall community structure. However, single taxa responded to elevated CO2 concentrations. The ratio of cirripedia nauplii to cypris larvae, the next developmental stage, in the sediment traps averaged over the entire experiment increased with pCO2 and this suggests that increased pCO2 may have delayed their development. Also, the number of bivalves, averaged over the experimental period, decreased significantly with increasing pCO2. The nature of the CO2 effect, either direct or indirect, remains open and needs to be addressed in future.

Description: Since the 1990s the AWI conducts studies on phytoplankton ecology at various locations in the central Arctic Ocean, the Greenland Sea and the Fram Strait onboard the ice going research vessel Polarstern. These studies provide valuable insight into the pelagic Arctic ecosystem. However, plankton abundance and composition were determined only sporadically and only few biogeochemical components were analysed. Considering the rapid changes of environmental conditions due to increasing temperatures, sea ice loss and ocean acidification, a comprehensive view of their impact on pelagic biological processes and the consequences for organic matter cycling is essential for our understanding of Arctic ecosystems. Thus a new group - Plankton Ecology and Biogeochemistry in a Changing Arctic Ocean (PEPBCAO) - established at the AWI studying the pelagic system in greater detail. The aim of this group is to complement the measurements of bulk variables and phyto- and zooplankton abundances by molecular assessment of the phytoplankton diversity including pico- and nanoplankton, allowing to better quantifying the intrusion of invading species into the polar habitat. Point measurements during cruises will serve as ground-truthing data to create basin wide satellite images, focussing on the quantitative estimation of phytoplankton functional types, which can serve as an input for modelling approaches. Changes in the composition of organic matter are investigated by molecular analyses and together with abundance and activity of zooplankton key species this will improve our ability of estimating carbon export under climate change. Beside the Central Arctic, one focus of the group will be the ‘AWI Hausgarten Deep Sea Monitoring Station’ in the Fram Strait off Svalbard. These data will be integrated in the existing data sets of the Arctic Ocean and this will provide a more detailed view of the changing pelagic system in the transition region between the central Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean and first results will be presented.