Sea ice presence is linked to higher carbon export and vertical microbial connectivity in the Eurasian Arctic Ocean.

ABSTRACT: Arctic Ocean sea ice cover is shrinking due to warming. Long-term sediment trap data shows higher export efficiency of particulate organic carbon in regions with seasonal sea ice compared to regions without sea ice. To investigate this sea-ice enhanced export, we compared how different early summer phytoplankton communities in seasonally ice-free and ice-covered regions of the Fram Strait affect carbon export and vertical dispersal of microbes. In situ collected aggregates revealed two-fold higher carbon export of diatom-rich aggregates in ice-covered regions, compared to Phaeocystis aggregates in the ice-free region. Using microbial source tracking, we found that ice-covered regions were also associated with more surface-born microbial clades exported to the deep sea. Taken together, our

SUBMITTER: Fadeev E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8566512 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature