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Estimation of Antarctic land-fast sea ice algal biomass and snow thickness from under-ice radiance spectra in two contrasting areas

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posted on 2023-05-19, 22:30 authored by Wongpan, P, Klaus MeinersKlaus Meiners, Langhorne, PJ, Petra HeilPetra Heil, Smith, IJ, Leonard, GH, Robert MassomRobert Massom, Clementson, LA, Haskell, TG

Fast ice is an important component of Antarctic coastal marine ecosystems, providing a prolific habitat for ice algal communities. This work examines the relationships between normalized difference indices (NDI) calculated from under‐ice radiance measurements and sea ice algal biomass and snow thickness for Antarctic fast ice. While this technique has been calibrated to assess biomass in Arctic fast ice and pack ice, as well as Antarctic pack ice, relationships are currently lacking for Antarctic fast ice characterized by bottom ice algae communities with high algal biomass. We analyze measurements along transects at two contrasting Antarctic fast ice sites in terms of platelet ice presence: near and distant from an ice shelf, i.e., in McMurdo Sound and off Davis Station, respectively. Snow and ice thickness, and ice salinity and temperature measurements support our paired in situ optical and biological measurements. Analyses show that NDI wavelength pairs near the first chlorophyll a (chl a) absorption peak (≈440 nm) explain up to 70% of the total variability in algal biomass. Eighty‐eight percent of snow thickness variability is explained using an NDI with a wavelength pair of 648 and 567 nm. Accounting for pigment packaging effects by including the ratio of chl a‐specific absorption coefficients improved the NDI‐based algal biomass estimation only slightly. Our new observation‐based algorithms can be used to estimate Antarctic fast ice algal biomass and snow thickness noninvasively, for example, by using moored sensors (time series) or mapping their spatial distributions using underwater vehicles.

History

Publication title

Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans

Volume

123

Pagination

1907-1923

ISSN

2169-9275

Department/School

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.

Place of publication

United States

Rights statement

Copyright 2018 American Geophysical Union

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Assessment and management of coastal and estuarine ecosystems; Expanding knowledge in the physical sciences

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