ALBERT

Description: It is well established that during sea-ice formation, crystals aggregate into a solid matrix, and dissolved sea-water constituents, including inorganic nutrients, are rejected from the ice matrix. However, the behaviour of dissolved organic matter (DOM) during ice formation and growth has not been studied to date. DOM is the primary energetic substrate for microbial heterotrophic activity in sea water and sea ice, and therefore it is at the base of the trophic fluxes within the microbial food web. The aim of our study was to compare the behaviour of DOM and inorganic nutrients during formation and growth of sea ice. Experiments were conducted in a large indoor ice-tank facility (Hamburg Ship Model Basin, Germany) at −15°C. Three 1 m3 tanks, to which synthetic sea water, nutrients and dissolved organic compounds (diatom-extracted DOM) had been added, were sampled over a period of 5 days during sea-ice formation. Samples were collected throughout the experiment from water underlying the ice, and at the end from the ice as well. Brine was obtained from the ice by centrifuging ice cores. Inorganic nutrients (nitrate and phosphate) were substantially enriched in brine in comparison to water and ice phases, consistent with the processes of ice formation and brine rejection. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was also enriched in brine but was more variable and enriched in comparison to a dilution line. No difference in bacteria numbers was observed between water, ice and brine. No bacteria growth was measured, and this therefore had no influence on the measurable DOC levels. We conclude that the incorporation of dissolved organic compounds in newly forming ice is conservative. However, since the proportions of DOC in the brine were partially higher than those of the inorganic nutrients, concentrating effects of DOC in brine might be different compared to salts.

Description: It has been hypothesized that there are significant dissolved organic matter (DOM) pools in sea-ice systems, although measurements of DOM in sea ice have only rarely been made. The significance of DOM for ice-based productivity and carbon turnover therefore remains highly speculative. DOM within sea ice from the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas, Antarctica, in 1994 and the Weddell Sea, Antarctica, in 1992 and 1997 was investigated. Measurements were made on melted sea-ice sections in 1994 and 1997 and in sea-ice brines in 1992. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) concentrations in melted ice cores were up to 1.8 and 0.78 mM, respectively, or 30 and 8 times higher than those in surface water concentrations, respectively. However, when concentrations within the brine channel/pore space were calculated from estimated brine volumes, actual concentrations of DOC in brines were up to 23.3 mM and DON up to 2.2 mM, although mean values were 1.8 and 0.15 mM, respectively. There were higher concentrations of DOM in warm, porous summer second-year sea ice compared with colder autumn first-year ice, consistent with the different biological activity supported within the various ice types. However, in general there was poor correlation between DOC and DON with algal biomass and numbers of bacteria within the ice. The mean DOC/DON ratio was 11, although again values were highly variable, ranging from 3 to highly carbon-enriched samples of 95. Measurements made on a limited dataset showed that carbohydrates constitute on average 35% of the DOC pool, with highly variable contributions of 1−99%.