Arctic-ICE 2012 Intracellular Nutrients

Nutrient availability influences maximum production, speciation, cellular composition, and overall phenology of the Arctic spring ice algal bloom. However, how ice algae obtain nutrients from their environment is not well-understood. Previously documented positive relationships between sea ice nutrient concentrations and algal biomass evidenced that ice algae maintain an intracellular nutrient pool. Here we provide direct evidence that **sea ice diatoms store intracellular nitrate+nitrite and silicic acid well above that available in their ambient environment**. Differential retention of intracellular pools released during standard melt processing techniques led to an increase in the apparent dissolved ratio of N:Si measured in bulk ice melt samples that likely influenced interpretations of Si-limitation in some previous studies.

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The ability of ice algae to store nutrient reserves also highlights a critical biological process that stands to shift our understanding of nutrient dynamics in sea ice.