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Sea ice ecosystems

Figure 1: The Social Network for Tampa Bay [1]

Sea ice covers some 3-7% of the total surface of our planet depending on the season of the year [2]. Apart from being one of the most important climatic variables and key indicator of climate change, sea ice also provides an extreme and changeable habitat for diverse sympagic organisms, which play an important role in the ecosystems of the polar seas [3].


Sea ice cover occurs primarily in the polar regions, but in the northern hemisphere it may be also found at lower latitudes (eg. in the Baltic, Caspian and Okhotsk seas, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Scandinavian fjords) [4]. Land-fast ice forms and remains fast along the coast, attached to the shore or grounded to a shallow sea bottom. Pack ice refers to any area of floating sea ice that is not land-fast.
  1. ↑ http://www.buzzardsbay.org/download/nep-networks-paper.pdf
  2. ↑ Comiso J. C., 2003, Large scale characteristics and variability of the global sea ice cover. In: Thomas, D. N., Dieckmann, G. S., Sea ice. An introduction to its physics, chemistry, biology and geology. Blackwell Science, pp 112-142
  3. ↑ Dieckmann, G. S., Hellmer, H. H., 2003, The importance of sea ice: an overwiew. In: Thomas, D. N., Dieckmann, G. S., Sea ice. An introduction to its physics, chemistry, biology and geology. Blackwell Science, pp 1-21
  4. ↑ Horner, R., Ackley, S. F., Dieckmann, G. S., Gulliksen, B., Hoshiai, T., Legendre, L., Melnikov, I. A., Reeburgh, W. S., Spindler, M., Sullivan, C. W., 1992, Ecology of sea ice biota. I. Habitat, terminology, and methodology. Polar Biol 12:417-427
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