Abundance and composition of the sea-ice meiofauna in off-shore pack ice of the Beaufort Gyre in summer 2002 and 2003
Gradinger, R.R.; Meiners, K.; Plumley, G.; Zhang, Q.; Bluhm, B.A. (2005). Abundance and composition of the sea-ice meiofauna in off-shore pack ice of the Beaufort Gyre in summer 2002 and 2003. Polar Biol. 28(3): 171-181. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00300-004-0674-5
We studied the abundance, biomass and potential ingestion rates of meiofauna in multi-year sea ice (MYI) of the Beaufort Gyre during two icebreaker expeditions in summers 2002 and 2003. Ice cores were taken at a total of ten stations and analyzed for ice temperature, salinity, chlorophyll a (Chl a), and ice meiofauna abundances. In 2002, ice was free of snow and covered with melt ponds. In 2003, snow still covered the ice and a slush-layer was found in the ice-water interface. The vertical distribution of Chl a mostly followed C-shaped curves with elevated concentrations at the bottom and top of the ice. Ice meiofauna was mainly restricted to the bottom 10 cm of the ice and was dominated by turbellarians, harpacticoid copepods and nematodes. The meiofauna abundances (range: 8–3,000 individuals m-2) and Chl a concentration (range: 0.1–1.7 mg Chl a m-2) were similar to estimates for MYI of the Transpolar Drift, but about 2 orders of magnitude below coastal fast first-year ice estimates. Calculated potential meiofaunal ingestion rate, based on allometric equations and volume estimates from the literature, was about 1% of published daily algal production rates and was thus unlikely to constrain algal biomass accumulation.
Dataset
Gradinger et al. (2005) Meiofauna in sea ice of the Beaufort Gyre 2002 and 2003. Polar Biology, 171-184, more
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