Bio-Optical Observations of Light Attenuation through Sea Ice During Melt Onset
Abstract
The Arctic sea ice cover is a structural provider and modifier of the dynamic, seasonally evolving polar marine environment. Providing a habitat for ice algal communities as well as conditions determining primary production in the upper ocean, sea ice physical processes dictate local biogeochemical processes. In a changing Arctic, it is important to examine how a longer melt season, a thinner ice cover, and the transition to a largely seasonal coverage regime impacts marine ecosystems and our global climate system. This study analyzes radiative transfer through four layers (snow, drained ice, interior ice, and bottom ice algae) to inform parameterizations of biogeochemical and physical modeling of ice covered seas where uncertainties are currently inhibiting model development and model-observation interactions. We use optical relationships defined by field observations from the Chukchi Sea during the onset of melt in the late spring of 2014 to describe the impact of each layer on the spectral attenuation of incident irradiance. The present of a bottom ice algae layer was found to reduce transmission by approximately one order of magnitude. Results help characterize the physical environment of ice algal communities at the time and location of the study and demonstrate the impact of absorption by these communities on light availability in the upper ocean. This work indicates the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the collection and use of bio-optical observations to enhance modeling of biogeochemical processes.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.C33E..02A
- Keywords:
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- 0750 Sea ice;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 0758 Remote sensing;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 0762 Mass balance 0764 Energy balance;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 0798 Modeling;
- CRYOSPHERE