Beschreibung: In this study, we present the first comprehensive analyses of the diversity and distribution of marine protist (micro-, nano-, and picoeukaryotes) in the Western Fram Strait, using 454-pyrosequencing and high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) at five stations in summer 2010. Three stations (T1; T5; T7) were influenced by Polar Water, characterized by cold water with lower salinity (〈33) and different extents of ice concentrations. Atlantic Water influenced the other two stations (T6; T9). While T6 was located in the mixed water zone characterized by cold water with intermediate salinity (~33) and high ice concentrations, T9 was located in warm water with high salinity (~35) and no ice-coverage at all. General trends in community structure according to prevailing environmental settings, observed with both methods, coincided well. At two stations, T1 and T7, characterized by lower ice concentrations, diatoms (Fragilariopsis sp., Porosira sp., Thalassiosira spp.) dominated the protist community. The third station (T5) was ice-covered, but has been ice-free for ~4 weeks prior to sampling. At this station, dinoflagellates (Dinophyceae 1, Woloszynskia sp. and Gyrodinium sp.) were dominant, reflecting a post-bloom situation. At station T6 and T9, the protist communities consisted mainly of picoeukaryotes, e.g., Micromonas spp. Based on our results, 454-pyrosequencing has proven to be an adequate tool to provide comprehensive information on the composition of protist communities. Furthermore, this study suggests that a snap-shot of a few, but well-chosen samples can provide an overview of community structure patterns and succession in a dynamic marine environment.

Beschreibung: The Arctic Ocean is highly susceptible to climate change as evidenced by rapid warming and the drastic loss of sea ice during summer. The consequences of these environmental changes for the microbial cycling of organic matter are largely unexplored. Here, we investigated the distribution and composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) along with heterotrophic bacterial activity in seawater and sea ice of the Eurasian Basin at the time of the record ice minimum in 2012. Bacteria in seawater were highly responsive to fresh organic matter and remineralized on average 55% of primary production in the upper mixed layer. Correlation analysis showed that the accumulation of dissolved combined carbohydrates (DCCHO) and dissolved amino acids (DAA), two major components of fresh organic matter, was related to the drawdown of nitrate. Nitrate‐depleted surface waters at stations adjacent to the Laptev Sea showed about 25% higher concentrations of DAA than stations adjacent to the Barents Sea and in the central Arctic basin. Carbohydrate concentration was the best predictor of heterotrophic bacterial activity in sea ice. In contrast, variability in sea‐ice bacterial biomass was largely driven by differences in ice thickness. This decoupling of bacterial biomass and activity may mitigate the negative effects of biomass loss due to ice melting on heterotrophic bacterial functions. Overall, our results reveal that changes in DOM production and inventories induced by sea‐ice loss have a high potential to enhance the bacterial remineralization of organic matter in seawater and sea ice of the Arctic Ocean.

Beschreibung: Pelagic processes and their relation to vertical flux have been studied in the Norwegian and Greenland Seas since 1986. Results of long-term sediment trap deployments and adjoining process studies are presented, and the underlying methodological and conceptional background is discussed. Recent extension of these investigations at the Barents Sea continental slope are also presented. With similar conditions of input irradiation and nutrient conditions, the Norwegian and Greenland Seas exhibit comparable mean annual rates of new and total production. Major differences can be found between these regions, however, in the hydrographic conditions constraining primary production and in the composition and seasonal development of the plankton. This is reflected in differences in the temporal patterns of vertical particle flux in relation to new production in the euphotic zone, the composition of particles exported and in different processes leading to their modification in the mid-water layers. In the Norwegian Sea heavy grazing pressure during early spring retards the accumulation of phytoplankton stocks and thus a mass sedimentation of diatoms that is often associated with spring blooms. This, in conjunction with the further seasonal development of zooplankton populations, serves to delay the annual peak in sedimentation to summer or autumn. Carbonate sedimentation in the Norwegian Sea, however, is significantly higher than in the Greenland Sea, where physical factors exert a greater control on phytoplankton development and the sedimentation of opal is of greater importance. In addition to these comparative long-term studies a case study has been carried out at the continental slope of the Barents Sea, where an emphasis was laid on the influence of resuspension and across-slope lateral transport with an analysis of suspended and sedimented material.

Beschreibung: Diatoms are the major marine primary producers on the global scale and, recently, several methods have been developed to retrieve their abundance or dominance from satellite remote sensing data. In this work, we highlight the importance of the Southern Ocean (SO) in developing a global algorithm for diatom using an Abundance Based Approach (ABA). A large global in situ data set of phytoplankton pigments was compiled, particularly with more samples collected in the SO. We revised the ABA to take account of the information on the penetration depth (Zpd) and to improve the relationship between diatoms and total chlorophyll-a (TChla). The results showed that there is a distinct relationship between diatoms and TChla in the SO, and a new global model (ABAZpd) improved the estimation of diatoms abundance by 28% in the SO compared with the original ABA model. In addition, we developed a regional model for the SO which further improved the retrieval of diatoms by 17% compared with the global ABAZpd model. As a result, we found that diatom may be more abundant in the SO than previously thought. Linear trend analysis of diatom abundance using the regional model for the SO showed that there are statistically significant trends, both increasing and decreasing, in diatom abundance over the past eleven years in the region.

Beschreibung: As consequences of global warming sea-ice shrinking, permafrost thawing and changes in fresh water and terrestrial material export have already been reported in the Arctic environment. These processes impact light penetration and primary production. To reach a better understanding of the current status and to provide accurate forecasts Arctic biogeochemical and physical parameters need to be extensively monitored. In this sense, bio-optical properties are useful to be measured due to the applicability of optical instrumentation to autonomous platforms, including satellites. This study characterizes the non-water absorbers and their coupling to hydrographic conditions in the poorly sampled surface waters of the central and eastern Arctic Ocean. Over the entire sampled area colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) dominates the light absorption in surface waters. The distribution of CDOM, phytoplankton and non-algal particles absorption reproduces the hydrographic variability in this region of the Arctic Ocean which suggests a subdivision into five major bio-optical provinces: Laptev Sea Shelf, Laptev Sea, Central Arctic/Transpolar Drift, Beaufort Gyre and Eurasian/Nansen Basin. Evaluating ocean color algorithms commonly applied in the Arctic Ocean shows that global and regionally tuned empirical algorithms provide poor chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) estimates. The semi-analytical algorithms Generalized Inherent Optical Property model (GIOP) and Garver-Siegel-Maritorena (GSM), on the other hand, provide robust estimates of Chl-a and absorption of colored matter. Applying GSM with modifications proposed for the western Arctic Ocean produced reliable information on the absorption by colored matter, and specifically by CDOM. These findings highlight that only semi-analytical ocean color algorithms are able to identify with low uncertainty the distribution of the different optical water constituents in these high CDOM absorbing waters. In addition, a clustering of the Arctic Ocean into bio-optical provinces will help to develop and then select province-specific ocean color algorithms.

Beschreibung: HPLC measured chlorophyll data ad the ratio of daignostic marker pigments to chla. Dimethylsulfoniopropionate and dimethylsulfide concentrations measured on water samples

Beschreibung: A decade of particle flux measurements providse the basis for a comparison of the eastern and western province s of the Nordic Seas. Ice-related physical and biological seasonality as well as pelagic settings jointly control fluxes in the western Polar Province which receive s southward flowing water of Polar origin. Sediment trap data from this realm highlight a predominantly physical flux control which leads to exports of siliceous particle s within the biological marginal ice zone as a prominent contributor. In the northward flowing waters of the eastern Atlanti c Province, feeding strategies, life histories and the succession ofdominant mesozooplankters (copepods and pteropods) are central in controlling fluxes. Furthermore, more calcareous matter is exported here with a shift in flux seasonality towards summer I autumn. Dominant pelagic processes modeled numerically as to their impact on annual organic carbon exports for both provinces confirm that interannual flux variability is related to changes in the respecti ve control mechanisms. Annual organic carbon export s are strikingly similar in the Polar and Atlantic Province s (2.4 and 2.9 g/m**2/y at 500 m depth), despite major differences in flux control. The Polar and Atlantic Provinces, however, can be distinguished according to annual fluxes of opal (1.4 and 0.6 g/m**2/y) and carbonate (6.8 and 10.4 g/m**2/y). Interannual variability may blur this in single years. Thus, it is vital to use multi-annual data sets when including particle exports in general biogeochemical province descriptions. Vertical flux profiles (collections from 500 m, 1000 m in both provinces and 300-600 m above the seafloor deviate from the general vertical decline of fluxes due to particle degradation during sinking. At depths〉 1000 m secondary fluxes (laterally advectedlresuspended particles) are often juxtaposed to primary (pelagic) fluxes, a pattern which is most prominent in the Atlantic Province. Spatial variability within the Atlantic Province remains poorly understood, and the same holds true for interannual variability. No proxies are at hand for this province to quantitatively relate fluxes to physical or biological pelagic properties. For the seasonally ice-covered Polar Province a robust relationship exists between particle export and ambient ice-regime (Ramseier et al. this volume; Ramseier et al. 1999). Spatial flux patterns may be differentiated and interannual variability can be analyzed in this manner to impro ve our ability to couple pelagic export patterns with benthic and geochemical sedimentary processes in seasonally ice-covered seas.