| The research presented, advances conceptual and quantitative understandings of the processes occurring within the Antarctic pack ice that are relevant to the ecology of the Antarctic marine ecosystem. Field studies and modelling studies revealed some of the direct links between sea-ice geophysics and primary production in pack ice. Particularly important in this research were the realizations that: (1) autumnal blooms occurred in drifting pack ice and (2) fluid flow and nutrient supply can occur throughout sea ice when freezing fronts propagate through porous and isothermal ice sheets. Implications from the latter realization expand the current paradigms of the direct links between physical dynamics of sea ice and the associated microbial communities. Specifically, sea ice should be viewed as a porous medium whereby the exchanges of inorganic and organic materials between the water column and ice are intricately linked to the time varying porosities of the ice. In turn, the porous nature of the ice is controlled by the thermodynamics of the ice sheet, and thermodynamics are, in turn, influenced by atmospheric and oceanographic forcings. These specific links between biological communities, ice, and oceanographic processes allow specific insights into the factors that control the time and space distributions of sea-ice primary production. These specific linkages between the components of the Antarctic pack-ice ecosystem are fundamental in nature and therefore, should provide a broader understanding of polar marine ecosystems in their entirety. |
