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Seasonal dynamics of algal and bacterial communities in Arctic sea ice under variable snow cover

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Abstract

The abundance of diatoms and heterotrophic bacteria in sea ice rapidly increases during the spring. However, the number and activity of these microorganisms vary with changing environmental conditions and potentially the taxonomic composition of the algal community during this time. In this study, we assessed the spring bottom-ice community composition in Dease Strait, Nunavut, and investigated potential controls of chlorophyll a (chl a), particulate organic carbon (POC), cell abundance, and production from early March until early June. We found that using flow cytometry to estimate photosynthetic nanoeukaryote (2–20 μm) abundance gave results very similar to light microscopy counts, except when pennate diatoms with lengths close to 20 μm, the maximum size detected by flow cytometry, were abundant. Using the average abundance of nanoeukaryotes from the two methods, we documented a change in the size of cells comprising the ice algal community over the spring, from largely pico- (<2 μm), to nano- and microeukaryotes (20–200 μm). This shift in ice algal size corresponded to a bloom in diatoms that drove increases in chl a, POC, and primary productivity. Low-salinity surface waters, limited nutrient availability, as well as seasonally intensifying light in the bottom ice appeared to support dominance of the centric diatom Attheya spp. Increases in the number and productivity of heterotrophic bacteria in this study were correlated with the number of photosynthetic picoeukaryote cells, potentially due to their supply of dissolved organic carbon substrate. Our results suggest that future conditions predicted for the Arctic that include low nutrients and greater light transmission to the bottom of sea ice may favor an ice algal community dominated by centric diatoms versus the more characteristic pennate diatom-dominated community.

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Acknowledgements

Support for this research was provided by a Northern Scientific Training Program grant and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Canadian Graduate Scholarship to KC, Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the Canada Excellence Research Chair grant to SR, NSERC Discovery and Northern Research Supplement Grants to CJM, and in-kind support from the Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS). We thank Dr. Michel Gosselin and Ms. Sylvie Lessard for their support. This work represents a contribution to the research programs of ArcticNet, MEOPAR, the Arctic Science Partnership (ASP), and the Canada Excellence Research Chair unit at the Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS) at the University of Manitoba.

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  1. Faculty of Environment, Earth and Resources, Centre for Earth Observation Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada

    K. Campbell, C. J. Mundy, A. Delaforge & S. Rysgaard

  2. Institut des sciences de la mer de Rimouski, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Rimouski, QC, G5L 3A1, Canada

    C. Belzile

  3. Department of Bioscience, Arctic Research Centre, University of Aarhus, C.F. Møllers Allé 8, 1110, 213, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    S. Rysgaard

  4. Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Kivioq 2, 3900, Nuuk, Greenland

    S. Rysgaard

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Campbell, K., Mundy, C.J., Belzile, C. et al. Seasonal dynamics of algal and bacterial communities in Arctic sea ice under variable snow cover. Polar Biol 41, 41–58 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-017-2168-2

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