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Annual boom–bust cycles of polar phytoplankton biomass revealed by space-based lidar

Nature Geoscience volume 10, pages 118–122 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Polar plankton communities are among the most productive, seasonally dynamic and rapidly changing ecosystems in the global ocean. However, persistent cloud cover, periods of constant night and prevailing low solar elevations in polar regions severely limit traditional passive satellite ocean colour measurements and leave vast areas unobserved for many consecutive months each year. Consequently, our understanding of the annual cycles of polar plankton and their interannual variations is incomplete. Here we use space-borne lidar observations to overcome the limitations of historical passive sensors and report a decade of uninterrupted polar phytoplankton biomass cycles. We find that polar phytoplankton dynamics are categorized by ‘boom–bust’ cycles resulting from slight imbalances in plankton predator–prey equilibria. The observed seasonal-to-interannual variations in biomass are predicted by mathematically modelled rates of change in phytoplankton division. Furthermore, we find that changes in ice cover dominated variability in Antarctic phytoplankton stocks over the past decade, whereas ecological processes were the predominant drivers of change in the Arctic. We conclude that subtle and environmentally driven imbalances in polar food webs underlie annual phytoplankton boom–bust cycles, which vary interannually at each pole.

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Figure 1: Phytoplankton biomass observations from CALIOP and MODIS.
Figure 2: Polar phytoplankton cycles.
Figure 3: Climatological annual phytoplankton cycles.
Figure 4: Interannual changes in polar-zone phytoplankton biomass.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry Program and the North Atlantic Aerosol and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Cordley Hall 2082, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-2902, USA

    Michael J. Behrenfeld, Robert T. O’Malley & Jennifer Schulien

  2. NASA Langley Research Center, MS 420, Hampton, Virginia 23681-2199, USA

    Yongxiang Hu, Chris A. Hostetler, Johnathan W. Hair, Xiaomei Lu, Sharon Rodier & Amy Jo Scarino

  3. School of Marine Sciences, 5706 Aubert Hall, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469-5741, USA

    Emmanuel S. Boss

  4. Earth Research Institute and Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-3060, USA

    David A. Siegel

  5. Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program, 300 Forrestal Road, Sayre Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA

    Jorge L. Sarmiento

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  1. Michael J. Behrenfeld
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Contributions

M.J.B. designed the study; M.J.B., Y.H. and R.T.O’M. processed satellite data and analysed results; M.J.B. and R.T.O’M. prepared display items; M.J.B. wrote the manuscript with contributions from all authors.

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Correspondence to Michael J. Behrenfeld.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Behrenfeld, M., Hu, Y., O’Malley, R. et al. Annual boom–bust cycles of polar phytoplankton biomass revealed by space-based lidar. Nature Geosci 10, 118–122 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2861

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