Sea Ice Ecology - Biodiversity and ecology of the eukaryotic sea ice communities
The aim of this project is to study the biodiversity and function of the eukaryotic communities within sea ice. The organisms in sea ice have been studied for over 150 years in Antarctic, Arctic and the Baltic Sea. However, the understanding of the eukaryotic communities within sea ice and the functional roles the species have within the community is still poor. The biological processes leading to the formation of active sea ice communities as well as the importance of sea ice in the over-wintering of algae are poorly understood.
The species diversity of the communities are being studied using a combination of high-throughput sequencing of small-subunit ribosomal RNA gene clone libraries in combination with fluorescent-in-situ-hybridization as well as electron microscopy in order to study the morphology of the organisms.
It is providing new insights into the biodiversity of the smallest eukaryotic organisms living in sea ice and the importance of sea ice in the over-wintering of algae and protists, especially in the Baltic Sea.
The study will allow us for the first time to estimate the importance of sea ice in algal communities as well as will likely highlight the loss that will face us when the ice cover is diminishing or disappearing as a result of the climate change and the rising temperatures.
.
The practial work is being carried out by Markus Majaneva (markus.majanevaATfimr.fi) and Janne Rintala (janne.rintalaATfimr.fi) at the Finnish Marine Research Institute.
|
