Oden Southern Ocean 2008-09 - Yager - Sea Ice microbial biogeochemistry

Although sea-ice biota have been studied for decades, the Oden cruise afforded a unique opportunity to study their impact on climate-sensitive biogeochemistry.

The Antarctic transect covered more than 3000 miles of the ice-covered Pacific sector, allowing us to sample a large range of sea-ice conditions and types, normally unavailable within a single expedition. Our measurements should provide insight to relationships between climate-active gas fluxes, microbial activity, and physical variables potentially measurable by satellite. We collected sea ice (cores), brine (from sackholes), and under-ice seawater from 16 stations between 70°S, 107°W and 76°S, 151°W in the Amundsen Sea and measured concentrations of inorganic and organic carbon and nitrogen, along with microbiological biomass and rate measurements.