北极浮冰生态学研究进展

近年来随着北极地区的开放和全球变化对北极地区生态环境和海冰现存量的影响日益显现,北极浮冰生态学研究得到了广泛的重视和实质性的进展.最新研究结果显示,浮冰本身包含了一个复杂的生物群落,高纬度浮冰生物群落的初级产量远高于原先的估算,浮冰生物群落在北极海洋生态系统中的作用被进一步确认.但由于对浮冰生物群落的研究受后勤保障条件的制约,目前尚有大量科学问题有待今后进一步深入研究,预期我国科学家将在其中做出贡献.

The recent progress in the studies of Arctic pack ice ecology

The sea ice community plays an important role in the Arctic marine ecosystem. Species are transported by the Arctic transpolar drift system, and ice algae are an important source of the primary production that supports the sympagic community and may seed the spring phytoplankton bloom in ice edge areas. Because of the predicted environmental changes in the Arctic environment and specifically related to sea ice, the Arctic pack ice biota has received more attention in recent years using modern ice-breaking research vessels. Studies show that the Arctic pack ice contains a diverse biota and besides ice algae, the bacterial and protozoan biomasses can be high. Surprisingly high primary production values were observed in the pack ice of the central Arctic Ocean. Occasionally biomass maxima were discovered in the interior of the ice floes, a habitat that had been ignored in most Arctic studies. Light is one of the most important factors to control the biomass and structure of the pack ice community, together with other factors such as ice physical structure, temperature and brine volume.Many scientific questions, which deserve special attention, remained unsolved due to logistical limitations and the sea ice characteristics. Little is know about the pack ice community in the central Arctic Ocean. Almost no data exists from the pack ice zone for the winter season, although high biological activities were observed in winter pack ice in the Antarctic Ocean. Concerning the abundance of bacteria and protozoa, more studies are needed to understand the microbial network within the ice and its role in material and energy flows. The response of the sea ice biota to global change will impact the entire Arctic marine ecosystem and a long-term monitoring program is needed. The techniques, that are applied to study the sea ice biota and the sea ice ecology, should be improved.China has conducted some studies on Arctic pack ice ecology. The first Chinese Arctic expedition took place in summer 1999 and the second cruise is planned for the summer of 2003. Several ice stations were set up in the Canadian Basin where data are specifically scarce at present. The abundance, biomass and structure of community and the controlled environmental factors were investigated and grazing experiments were conducted.