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   Unprecedented Blooms of Ocean Plant Life    
      
   June 8, 2012:  Scientists have made a biological discovery in Arctic Ocean   
   waters as unexpected as finding a rainforest in the middle of a desert. A   
   NASA-sponsored expedition named ICESCAPE punched through three-feet of sea ice   
   to find waters richer in microscopic marine plants, essential to all sea life,   
   than any other ocean region on Earth.    
      
   "If someone had asked me before the expedition whether we would see under-ice   
   blooms, I would have told them it was impossible," said Kevin Arrigo of   
   Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., leader of the ICESCAPE mission and   
   lead author of the new study. "This discovery was a complete surprise."    
      
   http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2012/06/09/location_strip.jpg   
      
   In the summers of 2010 and 2011, the Impacts of Climate change on the   
   Eco-Systems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment (ICESCAPE)   
   shipborne expedition explored the biology, ecology and biogeochemistry of   
   Arctic waters in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. (Credit: NASA)    
      
   The microscopic plants, called phytoplankton, are the base of the marine food   
   chain. Phytoplankton were thought to grow in the Arctic Ocean only after sea   
   ice had retreated for the summer. Scientists now think that the thinning   
   Arctic ice is allowing sunlight to reach the waters under the sea ice,   
   catalyzing the plant blooms where they had never been observed.   
      
   The finding reveals a new consequence of the Arctic's warming climate and   
   provides an important clue to understanding the impacts of a changing climate   
   and environment on the Arctic Ocean and its ecology.    
      
   http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2012/06/09/phytoplankton_med.jpg   
      
   An assemblage of diatoms, one of the most common kinds of phytoplankton, as   
   seen through a microscope. These tiny oceanic plants were in a sample of water   
   collected about 5 feet below the ice during the 2011 ICESCAPE campaign.   
   (Credit: William M. Balch/Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences) The discovery   
   was made during ICESCAPE expeditions in the summers of 2010 and 2011.    
      
   Scientists onboard a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker explored Arctic waters in the   
   Beaufort and Chukchi seas along Alaska's western and northern coasts. During   
   the July 2011 Chukchi Sea leg of ICESCAPE, the researchers observed blooms   
   beneath the ice that extended from the sea-ice edge to 72 miles into the ice   
   pack. Ocean current data revealed that these blooms developed under the ice   
   and had not drifted there from open water, where phytoplankton concentrations   
   can be high.   
      
   The phytoplankton were extremely active, doubling in number more than once a   
   day. Blooms in open waters grow at a much slower rate, doubling in two to   
   three days. These growth rates are among the highest ever measured for polar   
   waters. Researchers estimate that phytoplankton production under the ice in   
   parts of the Arctic could be up to 10 times higher than in the nearby open   
   ocean.   
      
   "Part of NASA's mission is pioneering scientific discovery, and this is like   
   finding the Amazon rainforest in the middle of the Mojave Desert," said Paula   
   Bontempi, NASA's ocean biology and biogeochemistry program manager in   
   Washington. "We embarked on ICESCAPE to validate our satellite ocean-observing   
   data in an area of the Earth that is very difficult to get to. We wound up   
   making a discovery that hopefully will help researchers and resource managers   
   better understand the Arctic."    
      
   The discovery has implications for the broader Arctic ecosystem, including   
   migratory species such as whales and birds. Phytoplankton are eaten by small   
   ocean animals, which are eaten by larger fish and ocean animals. A change in   
   the timeline of the blooms can cause disruptions for larger animals that feed   
   either on phytoplankton or on the creatures that eat these microorganisms. "It   
   could make it harder and harder for migratory species to time their life   
   cycles to be in the Arctic when the bloom is at its peak," Arrigo noted. "If   
   their food supply is coming earlier, they might be missing the boat."    
      
   http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2012/06/09/windows.jpg   
      
   The shallow but extensive ponds that form on sea ice when its snow cover melts   
   in the summer act as windows, letting light penetrate the ice cap. (Credit:   
   Don Perovich/U.S. Army Cold Regions and Engineering Laboratory)    
      
   Previously, researchers thought the Arctic Ocean sea ice blocked most sunlight   
   needed for phytoplankton growth. But in recent decades younger and thinner ice   
   has replaced much of the Arctic's older and thicker ice. This young ice is   
   almost flat and the ponds that form when snow cover melts in the summer spread   
   much wider than those on rugged older ice.   
      
   These extensive but shallow melt ponds act as windows to the ocean, letting   
   large amounts of sunlight pass through the ice to reach the water below, said   
   Donald Perovich, a geophysicist with the U.S. Army Cold Regions and   
   Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H., who studied the optical properties of   
   the ice during the ICESCAPE expedition.   
      
   "When we looked under the ice, it was like a photographic negative. Beneath   
   the bare-ice areas that reflect a lot of sunlight, it was dark. Under the melt   
   ponds, it was very bright," Perovich said. He is currently visiting professor   
   at Dartmouth College's Thayer School of Engineering.    
      
   "At this point we don't know whether these rich phytoplankton blooms have been   
   happening in the Arctic for a long time and we just haven't observed them   
   before," added Arrigo. "These blooms could become more widespread in the   
   future, however, if the Arctic sea ice cover continues to thin."    
      
   The findings were published in the journal Science.    
      
      
   Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA   
      
   More Information    
   More images  from the ICESCAPE expedition    
      
   View the original NASA press release to view animations related to the Arctic   
   Ocean Bloom   
       
      
   Regards,   
      
   Roger    
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
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