Description of our project objectives

This project is funded for the time period 2002 to 2004 with field sampling in April 2002 and in Febr, March, and June 2003.

Main Objectives:

a) to determine the diversity and biomass of sea ice meiofauna and under-ice fauna in comparison to planktonic and benthic communities,
b) to determine algal biomass in the sea ice, water column and benthos to assess the absolute and relative amount of available food in sea ice,
c) to identify and track all life stages of those pelagic and benthic taxa which depend on sea ice to complete their life cycles,
d) to identify the relevance of sea ice produced particles for the nutrition of sea ice fauna, zooplankton and zoo-benthos based on stable isotope analysis.
e) to determine the relation between abundance and composition of ice biota and sediment load in the sea ice.

All objectives will be addressed in winter (main period of ice growth), in early spring (onset of primary productivity) and during ice melt (release of sediment). A pilot study was conducted in April 2002 to select sites.

Presentations and Publications:

SFOS Newsletter May 2002 (not available on the web)

Poster Presentation at the Arctic AAAS Meeting, Fairbanks, Alaska (Sep. 2002) with first data (0.6MB)