Influence of environmental factors on the development of bottom ice protist communities during the winter-spring transition

Seasonal changes in the abundance and taxonomic composition of bottom ice protists (i.e. diatoms, flagellates, and dinoflagellates) were assessed in the first-year landfast ice of Franklin Bay (Canadian Beaufort Sea) from 24 February to 20 June 2004. On each sampling day, bottom sea-ice protists were collected at sites of high (> 10 cm) and low (< 10 cm) snow cover. The net observed growth rates of diatoms and nanoflagellates were significantly higher during the pre-bloom (24 February to 25 March) than the bloom (ca. 3 April to 23 May) period under low snow cover but were not different under high snow cover. In contrast, dinoflagellates showed relatively constant net observed growth rate before and during the bloom period under both snow covers. These results indicate that the 3 protist groups responded differently to changes in the light regime during the growth period. The decline of the protist community after the bloom period was related to a combination of factors including nitrogen deficiency and melting processes. Prior to the bloom, flagellated cells, likely heterotrophic, dominated numerically under high snow cover, whereas autotrophic protists, especially solitary diatoms, prevailed under low snow cover. During the bloom period, colonial diatoms such as Nitzschia frigida, N. promare, Navicula sp. 6, N. pelagica, and Fragilariopsis cylindrus dominated the bottom ice community irrespective of snow depth, although abundances were higher under low snow cover. The arborescent colonial N. frigida, a key species of landfast ice across circumarctic regions, was the most abundant bottom ice algal diatom throughout the entire season. During the post-bloom period, colonial and solitary diatoms declined more rapidly than nanoflagellates, suggesting that nanoflagellates, presumably heterotrophic, were better adapted to melting sea-ice conditions. Our results demonstrated that the availability of nitrate in the surface water limits the accumulation of algal biomass in the bottom horizon of Arctic landfast ice during the vernal growth season.