ID
141 : Antarctic Sea Ice in IPY
Leader:
S. Ackley (UTSA)
Summary:
Antarctic Sea Ice in International Polar Year gathers IPY projects devoted
to the study of Antarctic Sea Ice. A major thrust of the project is to obtain
sea ice thickness, extent, and physical properties in order to characterize
mechanisms of growth and decay and the roles of both the ocean and atmosphere
in the sea ice annual cycle.
In addition this project will contribute to the understanding of the coupling
between ice physics, biology and biogeochemistry and to the determination of
the direction and magnitude of gas fluxes and sediment contributions from sea
ice derived fluxes. The role of ice-covered oceans in present day and past
exchanges (as determined from continental ice core measurements) and relation
to climate change will be better correlated and quantified. Within the context
of 3 different projects, coordinated by BASICS (862), year-round studies of
the physics, biogeochemistry and biology of Antarctic sea ice, drifting pack
ice and fast ice will be conducted in order to better understand and budget
exchanges of energy and matter across ocean-sea ice-atmosphere interfaces.
BASICS will quantify their potential impact on fluxes of climatically important
gases (CO2, DMS) and carbon export to the deep ocean; the Study of Antarctic
Sea Ice Ecosystems (818) will focus on the biology within sea ice and relationship
to ice physical properties; while Carbon in Sea Ice (976) will provide coordination
between the Antarctic and Arctic efforts to understand how sea ice biogeochemistry
controls CO2 fluxes.
Belgian
Partners:
- Université de Liège
- Université Libre
de Bruxelles, Glaciologie
- Université Libre
de Bruxelles, ESA
Period:
2007-2009 and beyond
Funding
- ARC (Communauté Française
de Belgique)
- FNRS-FRFC (Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique)
List
of Belgian Partners involved
-
Laboratoire de
Glaciologie (DSTE),
Université Libre
de Bruxelles, Belgique
- Laboratoire
d’Ecologie des Systèmes Aquatiques (ESA), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgique
- Laboratoire d’Océanographie Chimique et
de Géochimie des Eaux (LOCGE), Université Libre de
Bruxelles, Belgique
- Chemical Oceanography
Unit (COU), Université de
Liège
Description of the Belgian Contribution :
BASICS
(Biogeochemistry of Antarctic/Arctic Sea Ice
and the Climate
System) is an international project
proposed by the members of the Belgian SIBClim consortium
(Sea Ice Biogeochemistry
in a
Climate Change Perspective)
associated to an international network, that aims to carry out
year-round study of Antarctic and Arctic sea ice physics and
biogeochemistry in order to better understand and budget exchanges
of energy and matter across the ocean-sea ice-atmosphere interfaces,
and to quantify their potential impact on fluxes of climatically
important gases (CO2 , DMS) and carbon
export to the deep ocean. The research will also focus on the
controls on the main biogeochemical cycles in sea ice covered
area. Among them, the project will investigate the iron cycle,
and their link to sea-ice formation and decay, in order to decipher
its impact on the sympagic and pelagic communities and address
more generally the question of iron limitation in the HNLC Southern
Ocean.
In addition, inorganic carbon dynamics within and below sea ice
will be investigated to improve the current understanding and
the budgeting of air-sea-ice fluxes for climatically active biogases,
mainly CO2 and dimethyl sulphide (DMS).
Related Campaigns:
-
SIMBA (Sea Ice Mass Balance
in Antarctica): US led field campaign of the R.V. N.B. Palmer
icebreaker in the Bellingshausen Sea (Antarctica)
from 01.09.07
to 10.11.07
- CFL (Circum Polar Flaw Lead): Canadian led “year-round” field
campaign in the canadian sector of the Arctic ocean (Banks Island,
North Western Territories) based from the R.V. Amundsen, exploring
both the lead sea ice and fast sea ice
from 01.11.07 to 31.05.08
- Arctic Fast Ice in Prudhoe Bay: US-Belgian led year-round
field project on landfast Arctic sea ice in Prudhoe Bay
from 01.10.08
to 30.05.09
Links:
-
www.antarctica.ac.uk/Resources/BSD/ICED/
-
www.utsa.edu/lrsg/Antarctica/SIMBA/
-
web.mac.com/barber1818/iWeb/IPY-CFL/Welcome.html
-
dev.ulb.ac.be/glaciol/index.htm
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