The Arctic sea ice biological communities in recent environmental changes (scientific note)

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Biological materials obtained at the former Soviet Union ice station "North Pole-22" (NP-22) within the Beaufort Gyre in 1975-1981 have shown that the multi-year ice and ice-water interface is a rich and diverse environment inhabited by large numbers of diatoms and invertebrates. Recent data from the ice camp SHEBA (Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean) from the Beaufort Gyre in 1997-1998,comparable to the NP-22 data, demonstrate the following changes : (i) populations of sea ice diatoms are now very scarce by numbers of species and abundance; (ii) fresh water green algae, previously abundant only on the upper sea ice surface or within the uppermost sea ice layers, now dominate the entire sea ice thickness; (iii) populations of invertebrate animals like nematodes, copepods, amphipods, and turbellarians previously common within the sea ice interior are now not found in the multi-year ice and newly formed sea ice; (iv) cryopelagic fauna associated with the bottom sea ice surface as well as the under-ice zooplankton are also now scarce by numbers of species and abundance. These changes in the composition and structure of the sea ice communities within the Beaufort Gyre may be explained by increased melting of the sea ice cover during the last decade, and subsequent changes to the physical makeup of the sea ice.
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