Changes in Plankton Community Structure and Trophic Dynamics on Seasonal to Interannual Timescales Throughout the Arctic Ocean

Gabriela Negrete Garcia, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, United States, Jessica Y Luo, NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, United States, Matthew C Long, [C]Worthy, LLC, Boulder, United States, Charles A Stock, NOAA/GFDL, Princeton, United States, Manfredi Manizza, University of California San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, United States and Andrew David Barton, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Section of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, La Jolla, CA, United States
Abstract:
The Arctic Ocean is changing rapidly due to the upper ocean temperature, declining sea-ice extent, and increasing stratification. These changes are likely to modify phytoplankton community structure and phenology, leading to ecosystem-level variations in the pelagic and benthic energy flows from phytoplankton to fish.To study these changes, we use a model of a diverse phytoplankton and zooplankton assemblage composed of 15 plankton types, embedded in a global ocean circulation model including sea-ice, to quantify how plankton community structure and trophic transfers change in the Arctic Ocean on seasonal to interannual timescales. We discuss how in our model the plankton community structure, average body size, plankton size spectra, and trophic transfer pathways vary seasonally during the simulated period, 1990-2009. We then consider how these key ecosystem properties vary in a long-term hindcast version of the model, run from 1948-2009. With this study, we aim to assess how climate warming impacts the plankton community and trophic dynamics of the Arctic Ocean.
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