Abstract
The warming of our planet is changing the Arctic dramatically. The area covered by sea-ice is shrinking and the ice that is left is younger and thinner. We took part in an expedition to the Arctic, to study how these changes affect organisms living in and under the ice. Following this expedition, we found that storms can more easily break the thinner ice. Storms form cracks in the sea ice, allowing sunlight to pass into the water below, which makes algal growth possible. Algae are microscopic “plants” that grow in water or sea ice. Storms also brought thick heavy snow, which pushed the ice surface below the water. This flooded the snow and created slush. We discovered that this slush is another good habitat for algae. If Arctic sea ice continues to thin, and storms become more common, we expect that these algal habitats will become more important in the future.
Highlights
Arctic sea ice is the layer of frozen water covering the northernmost ocean on our planet
Since algae are responsible for food production the same way as plants are on land, it is important to know how many and which type of algae will grow in the Arctic Ocean
The algae we found, Phaeocystis pouchetii, can cope with changes between low light under the thick ice and high light intensity under the leads better than some other algae, which may explain its success under this type of ice [ ]
Summary
Oceanic currents describe the movement of water from one location to another, similar to wind in the atmosphere. Ocean currents are driven by wind, water density di erences, and tides. Ocean currents a ect the Earth’s climate by driving warm water from the Equator and cold water from the poles around the Earth. Organisms that grow in the water and can fix carbon from the atmosphere like plants do on land. In the high Arctic, the algae present are tiny, single-celled organisms. A place or area with certain environmental conditions, in which certain type of organisms live
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