Marine Birds as Indicators of Arctic Marine Ecosystem Health: Linking the Northern Ecosystem Initiative to Long-Term Studies

Marine birds are sensitive indicators of the condition of marine ecosystems in the Arctic, partly because they feed at the top of the arctic food chain. The Northern Ecosystem Initiative (NEI) recently supported four separate studies that investigated aspects of Arctic marine bird science which simultaneously addressed goals of the NEI to better understand northern ecosystems and their response to environmental stressors. The projects used both scientific and traditional knowledge to examine the relationship between sea-ice, contaminants, and the ecology of marine birds, and to transfer environmental knowledge to students. Results from these investigations confirm that changes are occurring in Arctic environments, and that these are captured through marine bird research. Collectively these studies provided new data that supported NEI objectives of monitoring the health of the Arctic ecosystem, and contributed to Canada's international obligations for Arctic science.     

南极普里兹湾夏季冰间湖沉降通量

为研究南大洋的生物泵,利用2009~2010年和2014~2015年中国第26、31次中国南极科学考察期间于普里兹湾冰间湖布放的时间序列沉积物捕获器,获取了夏季沉降颗粒物通量并分析了其组成成分.结果表明：2009~2010年和2014~2015年南极夏季普里兹湾颗粒有机碳平均通量分别为4088.13,508.99μmol/（m²·d）,生物硅则分别为7358.91,2034.63μmol/（m²·d）,其中生物蛋白石占夏季颗粒物通量均超过70%,表明硅藻是普里兹湾夏季的优势种和沉降通量的主要贡献者.2014~2015年有机碳沉降通量仅为2009~2010年12.5%,主要是由于缺少压舱物无法使上层有机质发生快速沉降,造成异养微生物对上层水柱中有机质降解程度更高,进一步影响有机碳的沉降效率.与非硅藻优势种的海域相比,夏季普里兹湾具有非常高的沉降通量和沉降效率,利用Martin曲线估算夏季普里兹湾的100m深度沉降通量平均为净初级生产力的8.67%,主要归因于硅藻的高沉降效率.为了预测南极海域生物泵的变化,需要重点关注南大洋浮游植物群落结构的组成与变化.