Sea ice ecosystems: Ecological effects of a thinning snow cover

We seek to provide new insight into the processes of photoacclimation and
photoinhibition in photosynthesis, using ice algae as an ideal model organism due to their simplicity and extreme shade adaptation, and by applying fluorescence imaging methods suitable for algae in intact sea ice in field experiments. The project tests the hypothesis that the thinning snow cover on Arctic sea ice will decrease sea ice primary production due to stress of ice algae by photoinhibition (i.e. the inhibition of photosynthesis by excess light). Snow cover is the main factor controlling light transmission to the underside of sea ice where ice algae occur, and ice algae are shade-adapted organisms that may be unable to avoid or tolerate higher light intensities resulting from less snow
cover.