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This study explores the changes in the surface water fugacity of carbon dioxide (fCO2) and biological carbon uptake in two Southern Ocean iron fertilisation experiments with different hydrographic regimes. The Southern Ocean Iron Release Experiment (SOIREE) experiment was carried out south of the Antarctic Polar Front (APF) at 61°S, 141°E in February 1999 in a stable hydrographic setting. The EisenEx experiment was conducted in a cyclonic eddy north of the APF at 48°S, 21°E in November 2000 and was characterised by a rapid succession of low to storm-force wind speeds and dynamic hydrographic conditions. The iron additions promoted algal blooms in both studies. They alleviated algal iron limitation during the 13-day SOIREE experiment and probably during the first 12 days of EisenEx. The fCO2 in surface water decreased at a constant rate of 3.8μatmday−1 from 4 to 5 days onwards in SOIREE. The fCO2 reduction was 35μatm after 13 days. The evolution of surface water fCO2 in the iron-enriched waters (or ‘patch’) displayed a saw tooth pattern in EisenEx, in response to algal carbon uptake in calm conditions and deep mixing and horizontal dispersion during storms. The maximum fCO2 reduction was 18–20μatm after 12 and 21 days with lower values in between. The iron-enriched waters in EisenEx absorbed four times more atmospheric CO2 than in SOIREE between 5 and 12 days, as a result of stronger winds. The total biological uptake of inorganic carbon across the patch was 1389ton C (±10%) in SOIREE and 1433ton C (±27%) in EisenEx after 12 days (1ton=106g). This similarity probably reflects the comparable size of the iron additions, as well as algal growth at a similar near-maximum growth rate in these regions. The findings imply that the different mixing regimes had less effect on the overall biological carbon uptake across the iron-enriched waters than suggested by the evolution of fCO2 in surface water.

ABSTRACT: Hydrography, chlorophyll <i>a</i>, phytoplankton and zooplankton dynamics and the vertical flux of particulate organic carbon (POC) and pigments in the upper 200 m were investigated for 12 consecutive days during a drogue study conducted in the open waters of the ice-edge zone of the Lazarev Sea during the austral summer (December/January) 1994/95. Results of the study indicate that during the experiment, primary production, although variable, increased from ~300 to ~800 mgC m^-2d^-1. This increase could likely be related to development of a shallow pycnocline. Analysis of sediment trap data showed that the vertical carbon flux resulting from sedimentation and grazing activity was greatest in the upper water column (<80 m). The importance of grazers to total POC flux was highest at the beginning and the end of the investigation and accounted for up to 15% of total carbon flux. The contribution of grazers to vertical flux was negligible (<2%) during the intermediate part of the Southern Ocean Drogue study. Lower contribution of grazers to sedimentation of POC at depth can likely be related to community composition of zooplankton. Sedimentation of phytoplankton cells from the upper water column increased during the study. Here, downward POC flux resulting from sedimentation of microphytoplankton was equivalent to 15-75% of the total. Increase in sedimentation of phytoplankton during the study can be related to an increase in the average size of phytoplankton cells. Transport of POC from surface waters to deeper depths resulting from sedimentation or grazing activity was equivalent to <48% of total daily primary production, measured at 50 m, while the same value for phytoplankton flux did not exceed 27% of the total. Zooplankton density was insufficient to exert either a positive (via faecal pellets) or negative (via reducing suspended phytoplankton concentration) effect on particulate carbon sedimentation. This resulted in algal sink being the most important mechanism in downward POC flux during the onset of the phytoplankton bloom period in the Marginal Ice Zone, even in the presence of pelagic tunicates.

Much evidence suggests that life originated in hydrothermal habitats, and for much of the time since the origin of cyanobacteria (at least 2·5 Ga ago) and of eukaryotic algae (at least 2·1 Ga ago) the average sea surface and land surface temperatures were higher than they are today. However, there have been at least four significant glacial episodes prior to the Pleistocene glaciations. Two of these (approx. 2·1 and 0·7 Ga ago) may have involved a ‘Snowball Earth’ with a very great impact on the algae (sensu lato) of the time (cyanobacteria, Chlorophyta and Rhodophyta) and especially those that were adapted to warm habitats. By contrast, it is possible that heterokont, dinophyte and haptophyte phototrophs only evolved after the Carboniferous–Permian ice age (approx. 250 Ma ago) and so did not encounter low (≤5 °C) sea surface temperatures until the Antarctic cooled some 15 Ma ago. Despite this, many of the dominant macroalgae in cooler seas today are (heterokont) brown algae, and many laminarians cannot reproduce at temperatures above 18–25 °C. By contrast to plants in the aerial environment, photosynthetic structures in water are at essentially the same temperature as the fluid medium. The impact of low temperatures on photosynthesis by marine macrophytes is predicted to favour diffusive CO2 entry rather than a CO2‐concentrating mechanism. Some evidence favours this suggestion, but more data are needed.

An infiltration community was the dominating ice algal community in pack-ice off Queen Maud Land, Southern Ocean, in January 1993. The community was dominated by autotrophic processes, and the most common species were the prymnesiophyte Phaeocystis antarctica and the diatoms Chaetoceros neglectus and Fragilariopsis cylindrus. The concentration of chlorophyll a was 1.3–47.9 μg l−1, and the inner part of the community was nitrate depleted. Uptake rates of nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, urea and amino acids were measured using 15N. Nitrate was the major nitrogen source for ice algal growth (67 ± 6% nitrate uptake). It is suggested that % nitrate uptake in the infiltration community decreases during the growth season, from 92% during spring (literature data) to 67% during summer. Scalar irradiance in the infiltration community was high and variable. It reached ca. 2000 μmol m−2 s−1 at some locations, and nitrate uptake rate was potentially photoinhibited at irradiances >500 μmol m−2 s−1. Nitrate uptake rate in an average infiltration community (0.6 m of snow cover) was lowered by 13% over a 2-week period due to photoinhibition.

The efficiency of physical concentration mechanisms for enrichment of algae and bacteria in newly formed sea-ice was investigated under defined conditions in the laboratory. Sea-ice formation was simulated in a 3,000 l tank under different patterns of water movement. When ice formed in an artificially generated current pattern, algal cells were substantially enriched within the ice matrix. Enrichment factors for chlorophyll a calculated from the ratio between the concentrations in ice and underlying water reached values of up to 53. Repeated mixing of ice crystals into the water column, as well as flow of water through the new ice layer, contributed to the enrichment of algae in the ice. Wave action during ice formation revealed lower phytoplankton enrichment factors of up to 9. Mixing of floating ice crystals with underlying water and pumping of water into the ice matrix by periodical expansion and compression of the slush ice layer were responsible for the wave-induced enrichment of algal cells. Physical enrichment of bacteria within the ice was negligible. Bacterial biomass within new ice was enhanced only when the concentration of algae was high. At low algal biomass, bacteria experienced substantial losses in the ice, most likely due to brine drainage, which were not observed for the microalgae. Bacterial cells are therefore not scavenged by ice crystals and the observed enrichment and sustainment of bacterial biomass within newly formed ice depend on their attachment to cells or aggregates of algae. Division rates of bacteria changed only slightly during ice formation.

Microscopical examination of near-surface eucaryotic microbial populations in circumcontinental waters of Antarctica indicated that nanoplankton (<20 μm diameter) dominated in regions with low chlorophyll concentrations (< 1 μg l⁻¹). About 30 % of the mean nanoplankton carbon consisted of heterotrophic flagellates. Heterotrophic microplankton carbon (> 20 μm diameter) was generally less significant. The variation in phytoplankton biomass was the result primarily of changes in cell density of pennate diatoms in the East Wind Drift, and of centric diatoms in the Weddell Sea and the Scotia Ridge region. Autotrophic and heterotrophic carbon as determined by microscopical analysis were compared with data for total particulate carbon, chlorophyll a, and adenosine triphosphate. Estimates for the C:chl ratio of autotrophs increased with decreasing concentrations of chlorophyll a, with mean values of 46 in bloom waters and 144 in 'blue water'. A C:ATP ratio for heterotrophic nanoplankton was estimated to be about 100, while that for heterotrophic microplankton may be lower. Algorithms, incorporating concentrations of chlorophyll a and ATP, are described which allow estimates of autotrophic and heterotrophic microbial biomass.

Some Nitzschia and closely related species have been examined in the light and electron microscopes from fast ice samples in the Arctic and Antarctic. Nitzschia neofrigida, forming arborescent colonies, and Nitzschia promare, forming loose ribbon colonies, are described as new species, both probably included in the distribution of other similar species. A new combination, Auricula compacta, represents the first report of this genus from ice samples. Colony formation is reported for the first time in Nitzschia arctica and Nitzschia taeniiformis. No biopolar species were found and several reports of Arctic species in Antarctic ice samples have been refuted.