Abstract
Abstract. Ice-edge blooms are significant features of Arctic primary production, yet have received relatively little attention. Here we combine satellite ocean colour and sea-ice data in a pan-Arctic study. Ice-edge blooms occur in all seasonally ice-covered areas and from spring to late summer, being observed in 77–89% of locations for which adequate data exist, and usually peaking within 20 days of ice retreat. They sometimes form long belts along the ice-edge (greater than 100 km), although smaller structures were also found. The bloom peak is on average more than 1 mg m−3, with major blooms more than 10 mg m−3, and is usually located close to the ice-edge, though not always. Some propagate behind the receding ice-edge over hundreds of kilometres and over several months, while others remain stationary. The strong connection between ice retreat and productivity suggests that the ongoing changes in Arctic sea-ice may have a significant impact on higher trophic levels and local fish stocks.
Highlights
The classical picture of Arctic ice-edge phytoplankton blooms found in the literature – mainly based on cruise transects – is of a long but narrow (20–100 km) band along the ice-edge, moving northward as the ice breaks up and melts over spring and summer (Sakshaug and Skjoldal, 1989)
The area located between the multiyear ice and maximal extent is the seasonal ice cover, and this forms the subject of this study, with a particular focus on the marginal ice zone (MIZ), which is the region of recent ice melt
Chlorophyll concentrations are obtained from Level 3, daily SeaWiFS ocean colour data1 derived using the OC4v4 empirical algorithm, and are provided on a Cartesian, 1/12◦ grid
Summary
The classical picture of Arctic ice-edge phytoplankton blooms found in the literature – mainly based on cruise transects – is of a long but narrow (20–100 km) band along the ice-edge, moving northward as the ice breaks up and melts over spring and summer (Sakshaug and Skjoldal, 1989). They differ from more traditional open-water blooms with respect to the nature of water column stratification, here induced primarily by freshwater input instead of solar heating. Satellite observations provide a synopticscale picture of these blooms, necessary for the development of a theoretical understanding that will permit their future forecasting
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