Sea Ice Biota

Investigators from a number of countries have been studying the ice community and experimental information is now available from a number of geographic areas. This includes ecological data as well as community and species specific physiological information. The literature on ice biota is scattered, being found in scientific journals, research and technical reports, symposia proceedings, M. S. theses and Ph.D. dissertations, meeting abstracts, and books on topics ranging from algal ecology to regional oceanography. Much of the material has not been published and some is available only in proprietry or difficult to obtain reports. The purpose of this book is to bring the data and references together in one place and to provide state of the art information on these little known, but ecologically important, polar communities.

This work is dedicated to the study of the composition, structure and dynamics of the Arctic sea ice ecosystem. It considers the permanent Arctic sea ice cover as an integral steady-state ecological system.

The book on sea ice ecology is the ecology of sea ice algae and other microorganism as bacteria, meiofauna, and viruses residing inside or at the bottom of the sea ice, called the sympagic biota. Organisms as seals, fish, birds, and Polar bears relies on sea ice but are not part of this biota. A distinct feature of this ecosystem, is the disappearance (melt) every summer and re-establishing in autumn and winter. The book is organized seasonally describing the physical, optical, biological, and geochemical conditions typical of the seasons: autumn, winter, and spring. These are exemplified with case studies based on author’s fieldwork in Greenland, the Arctic Ocean, and Antarctica but focused on Arctic conditions. The sea ice ecosystem is described in the context of climate change, interests, and effects of a decreasing summer ice extent in the Arctic Ocean. The book contains an up to date description of most relevant methods and techniques applied in sea ice ecology research. This book will appeal to university students at Masters or PhD levels reading biology, geosciences, and chemistry.

Over the past 20 years the study of the frozen Arctic and Southern Oceans and sub-arctic seas has progressed at a remarkable pace. This third edition of Sea Ice gives insight into the very latest understanding of the how sea ice is formed, how we measure (and model) its extent, the biology that lives within and associated with sea ice and the effect of climate change on its distribution. How sea ice influences the oceanography of underlying waters and the influences that sea ice has on humans living in Arctic regions are also discussed. Featuring twelve new chapters, this edition follows two previous editions (2001 and 2010), and the need for this latest update exhibits just how rapidly the science of sea ice is developing. The 27 chapters are written by a team of more than 50 of the worlds’ leading experts in their fields. These combine to make the book the most comprehensive introduction to the physics, chemistry, biology and geology of sea ice that there is. This third edition of Sea Ice will be a key resource for all policy makers, researchers and students who work with the frozen oceans and seas.

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Antarctic Research Series, Volume 73. The 4 million to 20 million square kilometers of sea ice that surrounds the Antarctic continent represents one of the largest and most dynamic ecosystems on Earth. This sea ice matrix provides a habitat for a wide variety of organisms, some of which live their entire lives within the ice while others are only occasional visitors. Large grazers, such as copepods and krill which come to the sea ice to feed, represent important links between sea ice biota and the pelagic environment. Unfortunately, because of the inherent difficulty of sampling such an environment, many aspects of this unique habitat are still poorly understood. The purpose of this volume is to present new information about this ecosystem so that its role within the Antarctic food-web (and as a sink for carbon dioxide) and its susceptibility to environmental changes can be better understood.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop, Bremen, Germany, October 10-14, 1988

As much as one-tenth of the world’s oceans are covered with sea ice, or frozen ocean water, at some point during the annual cycle. Sea ice thus plays an important, often defining, role in the natural environment and the global climate system. This book is a global look at the changes in sea ice and the tools and techniques used to measure and record those changes. The first comprehensive research done on sea-ice field techniques, this volume will be indispensable for the study of northern sea ice and a must-have for scientists in the field of climate change research.

The Arctic is often portrayed as being isolated, but the reality is that the connectivity with the rest of the planet is huge, be it through weather patterns, global ocean circulation, and large-scale migration patterns to name but a few. There is a huge amount of public interest in the ‘changing Arctic’, especially in terms of the rapid changes taking place in ecosystems and exploitation of resources. There can be no doubt that the Arctic is at the forefront of the international environmental science agenda, both from a scientific aspect, and also from a policy/environmental management perspective. This book aims to stimulate a wide audience to think about the Arctic by highlighting the remarkable breadth of what it means to study its ecology. Arctic Ecology seeks to systematically introduce the diverse array of ecologies within the Arctic region. As the Arctic rapidly changes, understanding the fundamental ecology underpinning the Arctic is paramount to understanding the consequences of what such change will inevitably bring about. Arctic Ecology is designed to provide graduate students of environmental science, ecology and climate change with a source where Arctic ecology is addressed specifically, with issues due to climate change clearly discussed. It will also be of use to policy-makers, researchers and international agencies who are focusing on ecological issues and effects of global climate change in the Arctic. About the Editor David N. Thomas is Professor of Arctic Ecosystem Research in the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki. Previously he spent 24 years in the School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Wales. He studies marine systems, with a particular emphasis on sea ice and land-coast interactions in the Arctic and Southern Oceans as well as the Baltic Sea. He also edited a related book: Sea Ice, 3rd Edition (2017), which is also published by Wiley-Blackwell.