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Free-drifting Antarctic icebergs can alter the phytoplankton in surrounding waters. In addition, diatom mats live attached to the submerged walls of the icebergs. In this study we describe a diverse diatom community associated with these mats and an atypical planktonic community in waters affected by icebergs. Samples were collected in the winter of 2008 and fall of 2009 from Antarctic icebergs and their adjacent waters, utilizing a remote operated vehicle and plankton nets, respectively, and subsequently analyzed using light and electron microscopy. Thalassioneis signyensis, dominant species growing on the icebergs' flanks, provided substrate for other diatoms, mainly Synedropsis lata var. angustata, Synedropsis recta, Fragilaria cf. islandica var. adeliae, Attheya gaussii, Navicula cf. perminuta, Amphora sp. and Nitzschia spp. New morphological characteristics are given for S. lata var. angustata, S. recta and A. gaussii. We report also Biddulphia alternans and Coscinodiscus concinnus for the first time in Antarctic waters. Similar to sea ice algae, the term sympagic is used to describe the habitat of these diatom communities. A particular planktonic community is also found close to icebergs, including diatoms known to have a benthic, epiphytic, sympagic or freshwater habitat: Amphora sp., B. alternans, Cocconeis spp., Delphineis minutissima, Licmophora gracilis, Luticola cf. australomutica, Opephora sp., Pinnularia spp., Plagiogramma sp., Psammodictyon panduriforme var. minor, Pseudogomphonema kamtschaticum, Rhaphoneis amphiceros, S. recta and T. signyensis. Our results support the hypothesis that species associated with icebergs exchange freely with plankton, ice shelves and sea ice, suggesting that icebergs can act as physical agents to transport and distribute organisms in between these habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Disintegration of the Antarctic Peninsula''s eastern ice shelves has increased the population of icebergs traversing the Weddell Sea, but until recently little was known about their ecological impact on the pelagic environment. Here we describe a class of algal communities that occur on the submerged flanks of large, free-drifting, glacially-derived tabular icebergs. We used remotely operated vehicles to examine these icebergs directly for the first time, to survey the algal communities and collect material for shipboard laboratory studies. The communities, principally diatoms, were associated with a characteristic cupped configuration of the ice surface, and they served as feeding sites for aggregations of Antarctic krill. Production rate measurements indicate that these communities are providing a substantial contribution to regional primary production in summer. As the number of icebergs grows, the number of algae communities may also be increasing, along with their cumulative contribution to organic carbon flux. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Exceptional sea ice conditions occurred in the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) region from September 2001 to February 2002, resulting from a strongly positive atmospheric pressure anomaly in the South Atlantic coupled with strong negative anomalies in the Bellingshausen–Amundsen and southwest Weddell Seas. This created a strong and persistent north-northwesterly flow of mild and moist air across the WAP. In situ, satellite, and NCEP–NCAR Reanalysis (NNR) data are used to examine the profound and complex impact on regional sea ice, oceanography, and biota. Extensive sea ice melt, leading to an ocean mixed layer freshening and widespread ice surface flooding, snow–ice formation, and phytoplankton growth, coincided with extreme ice deformation and dynamic thickening. Sea ice dynamics were crucial to the development of an unusually early and rapid (short) retreat season (negative ice extent anomaly). Strong winds with a dominant northerly component created an unusually compact marginal ice zone and a major increase in ice thickness by deformation and over-rafting. This led to the atypical persistence of highly compact coastal ice through summer. Ecological effects were both positive and negative, the latter including an impact on the growth rate of larval Antarctic krill and the largest recorded between-season breeding population decrease and lowest reproductive success in a 30-yr Adélie penguin demographic time series. The unusual sea ice and snow cover conditions also contributed to the formation of a major phytoplankton bloom. Unexpectedly, the initial bloom occurred within compact sea ice and could not be detected in Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) ocean color data. This analysis demonstrates that sea ice extent alone is an inadequate descriptor of the regional sea ice state/conditions, from both a climatic and ecological perspective; further information is required on thickness and dynamics/deformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Observations near a large tabular iceberg in the Weddell Sea in March and April 2009 show evidence that water from ice melting below the surface is dispersed in two distinct ways. Warm, salty anomalies in T–S diagrams suggest that water from the permanent thermocline is transported vertically as a result of turbulent entrainment of meltwater at the iceberg''s base. Stepped profiles of temperature, salinity, and density in the seasonal thermocline are more characteristic of double-diffusive processes that transfer meltwater horizontally away from the vertical ice face. These processes contribute comparable amounts of meltwater–O(0.1m3) to the upper 200m of a 1m2 water column–but only basal melting results in significant upwelling of water from below the Winter Water layer into the seasonal thermocline, suggesting that these two processes may have different effects on vertical nutrient transport near an iceberg. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Iceberg C-18a (35×7×0.184km) was studied repeatedly by five circumnavigational surveys in March-April 2009. During the period of the surveys, C-18a travelled 109 nautical miles in 23 days covering an area of 8.1×103 km2. This iceberg was formed from iceberg C-18 (76×7km) that originated from the Ross Ice Shelf in May, 2002. Ship-based measurements show that this iceberg produced fresh meltwater above the seasonal pycnocline that diluted and chilled the water it passed through from the surface to a depth of approximately 50m (summer mixed layer). The surface meltwater effects were detectable as far away as 19km and persisted for at least 10 days. We also found evidence that this iceberg was disrupting the Weddell Deep Water to depths up to 1500m. If we include these deep effects through the water column, the estimate of ocean water altered by this single iceberg reaches 3×1012 m3 over 23 days. Chemical and biological effects were detected at the same space and time scales as the physical properties, with decreasing partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) close to the iceberg and lower particle and chlorophyll concentration. Ten days after the passage of C-18a, chlorophyll-a had increased by 15%. These results are consistent with alternative hypotheses regarding the role of icebergs as mediators of a localized geophysical disturbance (H1) as well as promoters of chlorophyll-a production (H2). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]