Limited recovery following a massive seagrass decline in subarctic eastern Canada.

Over the last few decades, there has been an increasing recognition for seagrasses' contribution to the functioning of nearshore ecosystems and climate change mitigation. Nevertheless, seagrass ecosystems have been deteriorating globally at an accelerating rate during recent decades. In 2017, research into the condition of eelgrass (Zostera marina) along the eastern coast of James Bay, Canada, was initiated in response to reports of eelgrass decline by the Cree First Nations of Eeyou Istchee. As part of this research, we compiled and analyzed two decades of eelgrass cover data and three decades of eelgrass monitoring data (biomass and density) to detect changes and assess possible environmental drivers. We detected a major decline in eelgrass condition between 1995 and 1999, which encompassed the entire east coast of James Bay. Surveys conducted in 2019 and 2020 indicated limited changes post-decline, for example, low eelgrass cover (<25%), low aboveground biomass, smaller shoots than before 1995, and marginally low densities persisted at most sites. Overall, the synthesized datasets show a 40% loss of eelgrass meadows with >50% cover in eastern James Bay since 1995, representing the largest scale eelgrass decline documented in eastern Canada since the massive die-off event that occurred in the 1930s along the North Atlantic coast. Using biomass data collected since 1982, but geographically limited to the sector of the coast near the regulated La Grande River, generalized additive modeling revealed eelgrass meadows are affected by local sea surface temperature, early ice breakup, and higher summer freshwater discharge. Our results caution against assuming subarctic seagrass ecosystems have avoided recent global declines or will benefit from ongoing climate warming.

Leads in Arctic pack ice enable early phytoplankton blooms below snow-covered sea ice.

The Arctic icescape is rapidly transforming from a thicker multiyear ice cover to a thinner and largely seasonal first-year ice cover with significant consequences for Arctic primary production. One critical challenge is to understand how productivity will change within the next decades. Recent studies have reported extensive phytoplankton blooms beneath ponded sea ice during summer, indicating that satellite-based Arctic annual primary production estimates may be significantly underestimated. Here we present a unique time-series of a phytoplankton spring bloom observed beneath snow-covered Arctic pack ice. The bloom, dominated by the haptophyte algae Phaeocystis pouchetii, caused near depletion of the surface nitrate inventory and a decline in dissolved inorganic carbon by 16 ± 6 g C m-2. Ocean circulation characteristics in the area indicated that the bloom developed in situ despite the snow-covered sea ice. Leads in the dynamic ice cover provided added sunlight necessary to initiate and sustain the bloom. Phytoplankton blooms beneath snow-covered ice might become more common and widespread in the future Arctic Ocean with frequent lead formation due to thinner and more dynamic sea ice despite projected increases in high-Arctic snowfall. This could alter productivity, marine food webs and carbon sequestration in the Arctic Ocean.

Floating ice-algal aggregates below melting arctic sea ice.

During two consecutive cruises to the Eastern Central Arctic in late summer 2012, we observed floating algal aggregates in the melt-water layer below and between melting ice floes of first-year pack ice. The macroscopic (1-15 cm in diameter) aggregates had a mucous consistency and were dominated by typical ice-associated pennate diatoms embedded within the mucous matrix. Aggregates maintained buoyancy and accumulated just above a strong pycnocline that separated meltwater and seawater layers. We were able, for the first time, to obtain quantitative abundance and biomass estimates of these aggregates. Although their biomass and production on a square metre basis was small compared to ice-algal blooms, the floating ice-algal aggregates supported high levels of biological activity on the scale of the individual aggregate. In addition they constituted a food source for the ice-associated fauna as revealed by pigments indicative of zooplankton grazing, high abundance of naked ciliates, and ice amphipods associated with them. During the Arctic melt season, these floating aggregates likely play an important ecological role in an otherwise impoverished near-surface sea ice environment. Our findings provide important observations and measurements of a unique aggregate-based habitat during the 2012 record sea ice minimum year.

Massive phytoplankton blooms under Arctic sea ice.

Phytoplankton blooms over Arctic Ocean continental shelves are thought to be restricted to waters free of sea ice. Here, we document a massive phytoplankton bloom beneath fully consolidated pack ice far from the ice edge in the Chukchi Sea, where light transmission has increased in recent decades because of thinning ice cover and proliferation of melt ponds. The bloom was characterized by high diatom biomass and rates of growth and primary production. Evidence suggests that under-ice phytoplankton blooms may be more widespread over nutrient-rich Arctic continental shelves and that satellite-based estimates of annual primary production in these waters may be underestimated by up to 10-fold.