The role of sea ice in structuring Antarctic ecosystems

Summary This paper focusses on the links between growth, persistence and decay of sea ice and the structure of Antarctic marine ecosystems on different spatial and temporal scales. Sea-ice growth may divide an oceanic ecosystem into two dissimilar compartments: (1) the water column, with primary production controlled by the reduction of irradiative fluxes due to the snow-laden sea-ice cover and thermo-haline convection, and (2) the pore space within the ice with incorporated organisms switching from a planktonic to a kryohaline mode of life. In the ice, physical boundary conditions are set by (1) the irradiance which is controlled by the optical properties of snow and ice and (2) the ambient temperature which controls salinity and brine volume. Partly due to the high levels of biomass within the sea-ice system, interaction between different groups of organisms concentrates on the planar environment predefined by the ice cover. As a result of regional structuring of ecosystems, four sea-ice regimes may be recognized: seasonal pack ice, coastal zone, perennial pack ice, and marginal ice zone. These regimes are interwoven through the temporal structuring of ecosystems brought about by ice-cover seasonality and ice drift. In comparison with open-water pelagic ecosystems, sea ice appears of particular importance as it partly inverts the ecosystem structure and enhances the degree of ecological variability.Data presented here were collected during the European Polarstern Study (EPOS) sponsored by the European Science Foundation