The community composition of diatom resting stages in sediments of the northern Bering Sea in 2017 and 2018: the relationship to the interannual changes in the extent of the sea ice

• Published in: Polar biology Vol. 42; no. 10; pp. 1915 - 1922
• Main Authors: Fukai, Yuri, Matsuno, Kohei, Fujiwara, Amane, Yamaguchi, Atsushi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-10-2019; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Algae; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Blooms; Cell number; Communities; Community composition; Composition; Diatoms; Ecology; Ice; Life Sciences; Microbiology; Oceanography; Plankton; Plant Sciences; Resting stages; Satellite observation; Sea ice; Sediment; Sediments; Short Note; Zoology; Bering Sea; Bering Sea; Ice algae; Diatom resting stages; Sea ice
• ISSN: 0722-4060; 1432-2056
• DOI: 10.1007/s00300-019-02552-x

In the Bering Sea shelf, annual changes in the sea ice extent are large. In this study, we compare the viable diatom resting stages in sediments during the summer of 2017 when the sea ice retreat was late and 2018 when the sea ice retreat was early. South of St. Lawrence Island, the germinating cell number was 10–100 times greater in 2018 than it was in 2017. The taxonomic composition also showed large annual differences:
Fragilariopsis/Fossula
spp., which are ice algae species, were abundant in 2017, but
Thalassiosira
spp. dominated in 2018. Satellite observations confirmed that sea ice diminished before the ice-edge bloom in 2018, but sea ice remained until the ice-edge bloom in 2017. This study shows that the community composition of viable diatom resting stages is largely affected by the timing of the sea ice retreat.