Project

Sea ice ecosystems in the Arctic Ocean harbor diverse microbial assemblages composed of bacteria, archaea, protists, and ice-associated algae that collectively sustain photosynthesis, nutrient regeneration, and carbon cycling under extreme conditions. These communities occupy distinct niches within microhabitats such as brine channels, ice ridges, under-ice seawater, each shaped by salinity, light, and temperature. Although taxonomic diversity has been extensively catalogued, much less is known about how these microorganisms functionally interact and maintain ecosystem stability across spatially heterogeneous ice environments. As ongoing Arctic warming accelerates sea ice thinning and alters its physical structure, the balance of microbial productivity, metabolic coupling, and nutrient exchange is expected to shift, with consequences for local food webs and global biogeochemical feedbacks. This project seeks to understand how sea-ice bacteria and eukaryotes interact through metatranscriptomics across various microhabitats.