A foodweb component likely very sensitive to climate driven changes in the Arctic Ocean and pan-Arctic seas. We accordingly propose the term melt pond algal mats, and further speculate that these dense ice algal mats may provide an important yet overlooked source of organic carbon in the Arctic food-web. The melt pond algal mats consisted of distinct colored layers and differed from aggregates with a consisted layered structure. Rates of gross and net primary production, as well as community respiration rates were obtained from oxygen micro profiling, and carbon assimilation calculations were supported by 14C incubations, pigment analysis and light microscopy examinations. We document on distinct layered and brown colored mats with high carbon assimilation and net primary production rates compared to ice algal communities and aggregates, in fact comparable to benthic microalgae at temperate tidal flats. Here we report on ice algal communities forming dense mats not previously described, collected from melt ponds in the northern Barents Sea in July. While melt ponds have been considered as low productive, recent studies suggest that accumulated ice algal potentially facilitate high and yet overlooked rates of carbon turnover. Despite of this, ice algal communities in melt ponds are understudied and so are their contribution to the Arctic Ocean primary production and carbon turnover.
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