Ecological Studies of Sea Ice Communities in the Ross Sea, Antarctica

9614201科斯塔海冰在南大洋形成了广泛的栖息地。早在南极洲最早的探险报告中就描述了与海冰有关的高浓度藻类，这表明冰必须是生产和生物活动的重要场所。冰基生产的规模和重要性很难估计，主要是因为冰群落的空间和时间分布只在少数几个地区进行了研究，控制冰的生产和群落发展的过程仍然是肤浅的理解。 这项研究将结合冰物理学和遥感研究，审查南极罗斯海地区的海冰群落。该研究的具体目标是：1）将罗斯海冰群落的总体分布与由于冰的形成和生长过程而形成的特定栖息地联系起来; 2）研究海冰的初始形成，以记录生物体的合并和生存，特别是检查“冰雪”层内的冬季种群，以确定是否有在地表洪水时形成的种子种群; 3）对夏季群落进行取样，以确定罗斯海深水区高生产力的“冰雪”和“干舷”群落的发展程度;（4）收集有关冰生物区系、活动性和一般物理和化学特征的基本数据，从而有助于对浮冰区冰生物区系生态学的全面了解。

9614201 Costa Sea ice forms an extensive habitat in the Southern Ocean. Reports dating from the earliest explorations of Antarctica have described high concentrations of algae associated with sea-ice, suggesting that the ice must be an important site of production and biological activity. The magnitude and importance of ice-based production is difficult to estimate largely because the spatial and temporal distributions of ice communities have been examined in only a few regions, and the processes controlling production and community development in ice are still superficially understood. This study will examine sea ice communities in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica in conjunction with a studies of ice physics and remote sensing. The specific objectives of the study are: 1) to relate the overall distribution of ice communities in the Ross Sea to specific habitats that are formed as the result of ice formation and growth processes; 2) to study the initial formation of sea ice to document the incorporation and survival of organisms, in particular to examine winter populations within "snow-ice" layers to determine if there is a seed population established at the time of surface flooding; 3) to sample summer communities to determine the extent that highly productive "snow-ice" and "freeboard" communities develop in the deep water regions of the Ross Sea; 4) and to collect basic data on the biota, activity, and general physical and chemical characteristics of the ice assemblages, so that this study contributes to the general understanding of the ecology of the ice biota in pack ice regions.