Southern Ocean Biogeochemical Argo detect under-ice phytoplankton growth before sea ice retreat

The seasonality of sea ice in the Southern Ocean has profound effects on the life cycle (phenology) of phytoplankton residing under the ice. The current literature investigating this relationship is primarily based on remote sensing, which often lacks data for half of the year or more. One prominent hypothesis holds that, following ice retreat in spring, buoyant meltwaters enhance available irradiance, triggering a bloom which follows the ice edge. However, an analysis of Biogeochemical Argo (BGC-Argo) data sampling under Antarctic sea ice suggests that this is not necessarily the case. Rather than precipitating rapid accumulation, we show that meltwaters enhance growth in an already highly active phytoplankton population. Blooms observed in the wake of the receding ice edge can then be understood as the emergence of a growth process that started earlier under sea ice. Indeed, we estimate that growth initiation occurs, on average, 4-5 weeks before ice retreat, typically starting in August and September. Novel techniques using on-board data to detect the timing of ice melt were used. Furthermore, such growth is shown to occur under conditions of substantial ice cover (> 90 % satellite ice concentration) and deep mixed layers (> 100 m), conditions previously thought to be inimical to growth. This led to the development of several box model experiments (with varying vertical depth) in which we sought to investigate the mechanisms responsible for such early growth. The results of these experiments suggest that a combination of higher light transfer (penetration) through sea ice cover and extreme low light adaptation by phytoplankton can account for the observed phenology.

Automated summary

The seasonality of sea ice in the Southern Ocean has a significant impact on the life cycle of phytoplankton, with research showing that growth of phytoplankton under the ice begins 4-5 weeks before ice retreat, rather than rapidly accumulating after retreat. Novel techniques using sea ice cover for higher light transfer and extreme low light adaptation of phytoplankton have been identified as mechanisms responsible for this early growth process.