The Prominent Spring Bloom and Its Relation to Sea-ice Melt in the Sea
of Okhotsk, Revealed by Profiling Floats
Abstract
Seven profiling floats equipped with oxygen sensors deployed in the Sea
of Okhotsk provide time series data for 33 cases of spring phytoplankton
bloom, including nine cases in which sea ice existed just before the
bloom (prior-ice case). As an index of biological productivity, we
calculated Net Community Production (NCP) based on the increasing oxygen
rate using the Redfield ratio. The total NCP in the euphotic layer
averaged for prior-ice cases is 31.3
mmolCm-2day-1), ~4
times higher than that of non-ice cases. In addition to intensification
of surface stratification, other factors of sea-ice melt likely enhance
the bloom. The influence of sea-ice melt is particularly large in the
southwestern region, where the iron availability likely limits
phytoplankton growth. A suggested scenario is that when the sea ice
containing sediment/iron is transported from the northern shelves, a
prominent bloom is induced via the iron supply by sea-ice melt.