Motivation

Observations over recent decades suggest that sea ice plays a significant role in global biogeochemical cycles, providing an active biogeochemical interface at the ocean-atmosphere boundary. However, a pressing need exists to perform methodological intercalibration experiments in order to obtain reliable measurements of basic biogeochemical properties, including many of the Essential Climate Variables of the Global Climate Observing System. With newly emerging techniques, and pressed by the rapid changes in sea ice, the time has come to evaluate and improve our approach to study sea-ice systems. In 2016, the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) launched Working Group 152 on Measuring Essential Climate Variables in Sea Ice (ECV-Ice). This working group will synthesize past intercalibration exercises and design and coordinate new experiments. Our ultimate goal is to provide the international community with standardized protocols for processing sea-ice samples and collecting data for key variables, including CO2 partial pressure, nutrients, algal biomass and production, and gas exchange. We will also establish the effectiveness of new techniques to address sea-ice heterogeneity (often referred to as “patchiness”). These tasks will directly benefit the long-term community goal of understanding the response of polar marine environments to ongoing climate change.

Members

Co-Chairs: 

Daiki Nomura (Hokkaido University, Japan)

François Fripiat (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium) 

Brent Else (University of Calgary, Canada) 

Full Members: 

Bruno Delille (University of Liège, Belgium)

Mar Fernandez-Méndez (Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway)

Lisa Miller (Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Canada)

Ilka Peeken (Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany)

Janne Markus Rintala (University of Helsinki, Finland)

Maria van Leeuwe (University of Groningen, the Netherlands)

Fan Zhang (Polar Research Institute of China)

Associate Members: 

Katarina Abrahamsson (University of Gothenberg, Sweden)

Jeff Bowman (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA)

James France (University of East Anglia, UK)

Agneta Fransson (Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway)

Delphine Lannuzel (Australian Antarctic Division, University of Tasmania, Australia)

Brice Loose (University of Rhode Island, USA)

Klaus Meiners (Australian Antarctic Division, University of Tasmania, Australia)

Christopher J. Mundy (University of Manitoba, Canada)

Hyoung Chul Shin (Korean Polar Research Institute, Korea)

Jean-Louis Tison (Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)

Marcello Vichi (University of Cape Town, South Africa)

Karley Campbell (UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway)

Meeting 

#1: April 2017, San Diego, California, USA 

#2: June 2018, Davos, Switzerland 

#3: August 2019, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

#4: August 2020, Online meeting

#5: August 2021, Online meeting

#6: March 2023, San Diego, California, USA 

Publication 

#1: Butterworth, B. J. and Else, B. G. T.: Dried, closed-path eddy covariance method for measuring carbon dioxide flux over sea ice, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 6075-6090, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6075-2018, 2018.

#2: Roukaerts, A., Nomura, D., Deman, F., Hattori, H., Dehairs, F., Fripiat, F.: The effect of melting treatments on the assessment of biomass and nutrients in sea ice (Saroma-ko lagoon, Hokkaido, Japan), Polar Biology, 42, 347–356, 2019. 

#3: Campbell, K., Mundy, C.  J., Juhl, A. R., Dalman, L. A., Michel, C., Galley, R. J., Else, B. E., Geilfus, N. X., and Rysgaard, S.: Melt Procedure Affects the Photosynthetic Response of Sea Ice Algae. Front. Earth Sci. 7:21. doi: 10.3389/feart.2019.00021, 2019.

#4: Nomura, D, Wongpan, P, Toyota, T, Tanikawa, T, Kawaguchi, Y, Ono, T, Ishino, T, Tozawa, M, Tamura, T. P, Yabe, I. S, Son, E. Y, Vivier, F, Lourenco, A, Lebrun, M, Nosaka, Y, Hirawake, T, Ooki, A, Aoki, S, Else, B, Fripiat, F, Inoue J, Vancoppenolle, M. Saroma-ko Lagoon Observations for sea ice Physico-chemistry and Ecosystems 2019 (SLOPE2019). Bulletin of Glaciological Research, 38, 1–12, doi:10.5331/bgr.19R02, 2020. 

#5: Nomura, D., Ikawa, H., Kawaguchi, Y., Kanna, N., Kawakami, T., Nosaka, Y., Umezawa, S., Tozawa, M., Horikawa, T., Sahashi, R., Noshiro, T., Kaba, I., Ozaki, M., Kondo, F., Ono, K., Yabe, I. S., Son, E. Y., Toyoda, T., Kameyma, S., Wang, C., Obata, H., Ooki, A., Ueno, H., Kasai, A. (2022). Atmosphere–sea ice–ocean interaction study in Saroma-ko Lagoon, Hokkaido, Japan. Bulletin of Glaciological Research, 40, 1–17, doi:10.5331/bgr.21R02.

#6: Else, B. G. T., Cranch, A., Sims, R. P., Jones, S., Dalman, L. A., Mundy, C. J., Segal, R. A., Scharien, R. K., Guha, T. (2022). Variability in sea ice carbonate chemistry: A case study comparing the importance of ikaite precipitation, bottom ice algae, and currents across an invisible polynya. The Cryosphere, 16, 3685–3701, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-3685-2022.

#7: Lebrun, M., Vancoppenolle, M., Madec, G., Babin, M., Becu G., Lourenco, A., Nomura, D., Vivier, F., Delille, B. (2023). Light under Arctic sea ice in observations and Earth System Models. Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans. 128, 3, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JC018161.

Inter-calibration experiments

#1: March 2016

Saroma-ko Lagoon, Hokkaido, Japan

The effect of melting treatments on the assessment of biomass and nutrients in sea ice

Melting of sea ice samples is an inevitable step in obtaining reliable and representative measurements for biogeochemical parameters such as inorganic nutrients and particulate matter. The impact of the sea ice melting procedure has been previously evaluated for biological parameters such as chlorophyll a and cell abundance. For nutrient and biomass concentrations in sea ice it is generally considered to be best practice to melt samples fast, however no systematic evaluation exists in literature. The impact of melting temperature and buffer addition to avoid osmotic shock was tested on ice sampled in Saroma-ko Lagoon on the northeastern coast of Hokkaido, Japan. The focus was on inorganic nutrient concentrations (NO3-, NO2-, PO4-, NH4+, Si(OH)4) and particulate organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations and their isotope ratios. Coherent small changes have been observed for the parameter related to nitrogen, suggesting marginal cell lysis of a specific part of the microbial community. When differences are statistically significant, they are close to the uncertainty of the measurements and small in regard to the expected natural variation in sea ice. Our study suggest a minimal effect between melting treatments on biomass (POC, PN and Chl a) and nutrient measurements in diatom dominated sea ice and should be repeated where the sympagic community is dominated by flagellates. 

Detailed paper:

Roukaerts A., Nomura D., Deman F., Hattori H., Dehairs F., Fripiat F.: The effect of melting treatments on the assessment of biomass and nutrients in sea ice (Saroma-ko lagoon, Hokkaido, Japan) Polar Biology, 42, 347–356, 2019. 

#2: March 2018 

Saroma-ko Lagoon, Hokkaido, Japan

Sea ice primary production

We examined the inter-calibration experiment for sea ice primary production. Target methods for sea ice primary production was: 13C incubation, dissolved oxygen incubation, biomass accumulation, chlorophyll fluorescence, Ar/O2, DIC/TA, and under-ice eddy covariance methods etc.  All sampling and process were finished and now data processing and analyzing samples.  Preliminary results were shown in Davos, Switzerland, June 2018. 

More detail.

#3: February 2019

Saroma-ko Lagoon, Hokkaido, Japan

Under/over ice light measurements

Light measurements were carried out over/under the sea ice, and the spectrometers were inter-compared between the different sensors at the same position and environment. Preliminary results was shown in ECV-Ice/BEPSII annual meeting (16-18 August 2019), Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.  Details were shown in Nomura et al. (2020).

Participant: 

Daiki Nomura, Pat Wongpan, Takenobu Toyota, Tomonori Tanikawa, Yusuke Kawaguchi, Takashi Ono, Tomomi Ishino, Manami Tozawa, Tetsuya P. Tamura, Itsuka Yabe, Eun Yae Son, Frederic Vivier, Antonio Lourenco, Marion Lebrun, Yuichi Nosaka, and Martin Vancoppenolle.

Detailed paper:

Nomura D, Wongpan P, Toyota T, Tanikawa T, Kawaguchi Y, Ono T, Ishino T, Tozawa M, Tamura T. P, Yabe I. S, Son E. Y, Vivier F, Lourenco A, Lebrun M, Nosaka Y, Hirawake T, Ooki A, Aoki S, Else B, Fripiat F, Inoue J, Vancoppenolle M. Saroma-ko Lagoon Observations for sea ice Physico-chemistry and Ecosystems 2019 (SLOPE2019). Bulletin of Glaciological Research, 38, 1–12, doi:10.5331/bgr.19R02, 2020. 

Lebrun, M., Vancoppenolle, M., Madec, G., Babin, M., Becu G., Lourenco, A., Nomura, D., Vivier, F., Delille, B. (2023). Light under Arctic sea ice in observations and Earth System Models. Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans. 128, 3, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JC018161.

#4: January 2020

Roland von Glasgow sea ice chamber in Univ. of East Anglia, UK

Gases in sea ice and sea ice-air gas flux

Sea ice freezing experiments were carried out at Roland von Glasow air-sea-ice chamber (University of East Anglia) for the sea ice storage inter-comparison experiments. We obtained warm and cold sea ice and kept in the different kinds of bags and different time period to examined the storage inter-comparison for sea ice samples. 

Participant: 

Bruno Delille, Odile Crabeck, Kyle Simpson, Daiki Nomura, Elise Droste (training for MOSAiC)

#5: February 2020 

Tsukuba, Japan

Eddy covariance (EC) drying air comparison for air-sea ice CO2 flux measurement

In order to check the moisture effect on the EC CO2 flux on sea ice (very small magnitude of CO2 flux) , we have examined the drying air experiments in the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba, Japan. We prepared two CO2/H2O analyzers (enclosed, LI-7200) and compared with/without air drying systems (Drierite, Magnesium perchlorate, Perma pure dryer) for CO2 signals to calculate the CO2 flux.  This EC system will be used for inter-comparison experiment in the Cambridge Bay, Canada, 2021 to compare with the other EC system and enclosure CO2 chamber system for air-sea ice CO2 flux .

Participant: 

Daiki Nomura, Hiroki Ikawa, Keisuke Ono, Fumiyoshi Kondo

#6:   February 2021 

Saroma-ko,  Lagoon, Hokkaido, Japan

 Eddy covariance (EC) drying air comparison for air-sea ice CO2 flux measurement

 Participant:  Daiki Nomura, Hiroki Ikawa, Fumiyoshi Kondo,  Taichi Noshiro

Detailed paper:

Nomura, D., Ikawa, H., Kawaguchi, Y., Kanna, N., Kawakami, T., Nosaka, Y., Umezawa, S., Tozawa, M., Horikawa, T., Sahashi, R., Noshiro, T., Kaba, I., Ozaki, M., Kondo, F., Ono, K., Yabe, I. S., Son, E. Y., Toyoda, T., Kameyma, S., Wang, C., Obata, H., Ooki, A., Ueno, H., Kasai, A. (In press). Atmosphere–sea ice–ocean interaction study in Saroma-ko Lagoon, Hokkaido, Japan. Bulletin of Glaciological Research. 

#7: May 2022

The Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS), Cambridge Bay, Canada

An intercalibration experiments (more than one month) was carried out at Cambridge Bay (Canada) in May 2022 to evaluate the different methodologies for assessing air-ice CO2 flux and primary production in sea ice. 

Participant:  B. Else (lead), D. Nomura, B. Delille, K. Campbell, S. Muller, O. Crabeck, K. Simpson, T. Noshiro, M. Tozawa, N. Kanna, J. Osanen, N. Johnson, J. Langer, R. McKay, F. Ahmed, C. Braybrook, J. Watts.

#1: SCOR site

#2: BEPSII site

#3: CATCH site

#4: CIce2Clouds