• European Marine Science
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Climate models project that the Arctic Ocean may experience ice-free summers by the second half of this century. This may have severe repercussions on phytoplankton bloom dynamics and the associated cycling of carbon in surface waters. We currently lack baseline knowledge of the seasonal dynamics of Arctic microbial communities, which is needed in order to better estimate the effects of such changes on ecosystem functioning. Here we present a comparative study of polar summer microbial communities in the ice-free (eastern) and ice-covered (western) hydrographic regimes at the LTER HAUSGARTEN in Fram Strait, the main gateway between the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans. Based on measured and modeled biogeochemical parameters, we tentatively identified two different ecosystem states (i.e., different phytoplankton bloom stages) in the distinct regions. Using Illumina tag-sequencing, we determined the community composition of both free-living and particle-associated bacteria as well as microbial eukaryotes in the photic layer. Despite substantial horizontal mixing by eddies in Fram Strait, pelagic microbial communities showed distinct differences between the two regimes, with a proposed early spring (pre-bloom) community in the ice-covered western regime (with higher representation of SAR11, SAR202, SAR406 and eukaryotic MALVs) and a community indicative of late summer conditions (post-bloom) in the ice-free eastern regime (with higher representation of Flavobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria and eukaryotic heterotrophs). Co-occurrence networks revealed specific taxon-taxon associations between bacterial and eukaryotic taxa in the two regions. Our results suggest that the predicted changes in sea ice cover and phytoplankton bloom dynamics will have a strong impact on bacterial community dynamics and potentially on biogeochemical cycles in this region.

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Dissolved organic matter molecular analyses were performed on a Solarix FT-ICR-MS equipped with a 15 Tesla superconducting magnet (Bruker Daltonic) using a an electrospray ionization source (Bruker Apollo II) in negative ion mode. Molecular formula calculation for all samples was performed using an Matlab (2010) routine that searches, with an error of < 0.5 ppm, for all potential combinations of elements including including the elements C∞, O∞, H∞, N = 4; S = 2 and P = 1. Combination of elements NSP, N2S, N3S, N4S, N2P, N3P, N4P, NS2, N2S2, N3S2, N4S2, S2P was not allowed. Mass peak intensities are normalized relative to the total molecular formulas in each sample according to previously published rules (Rossel et al., 2015; doi:10.1016/j.marchem.2015.07.002). The final data contained 7400 molecular formulae.

Time-series studies of arctic marine ecosystems are rare. This is not surprising since polar regions arelargely only accessible by means of expensive modern infrastructure and instrumentation. In 1999, theAlfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz-Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) established the LTER(Long-Term Ecological Research) observatory HAUSGARTEN crossing the Fram Strait at about 79◦N.Multidisciplinary investigations covering all parts of the open-ocean ecosystem are carried out at a totalof 21 permanent sampling sites in water depths ranging between 250 and 5500 m. From the outset,repeated sampling in the water column and at the deep seafloor during regular expeditions in summermonths was complemented by continuous year-round sampling and sensing using autonomous instru-ments in anchored devices (i.e., moorings and free-falling systems). The central HAUSGARTEN stationat 2500 m water depth in the eastern Fram Strait serves as an experimental area for unique biologicalin situ experiments at the seafloor, simulating various scenarios in changing environmental settings.Long-term ecological research at the HAUSGARTEN observatory revealed a number of interesting tem-poral trends in numerous biological variables from the pelagic system to the deep seafloor. Contrary tocommon intuition, the entire ecosystem responded exceptionally fast to environmental changes in theupper water column. Major variations were associated with a Warm-Water-Anomaly evident in sur-face waters in eastern parts of the Fram Strait between 2005 and 2008. However, even after 15 years ofintense time-series work at HAUSGARTEN, we cannot yet predict with complete certainty whether thesetrends indicate lasting alterations due to anthropologically-induced global environmental changes of thesystem, or whether they reflect natural variability on multiyear time-scales, for example, in relation todecadal oscillatory atmospheric processes.

Prokaryotic cell abundances and biomass were determined in deep-sea sediment samples collected at the deep-sea LTER HAUSGARTEN, located in the Fram Strait. Sampling was performed during two cruises, i.e. RV Maria S. Merian MSM 29 in summer 2013 (23 June-12 July) and RV Polarstern PS85 in summer 2014 (6 June-3 July). Undisturbed sediment cores were collected with a TV-guided multicorer. Prokaryotic cell abundances were determined using acridine orange direct counts, following the procedure described in (Hoffmann et al., 2017; doi:10.3389/fmicb.2017.00266). For each sample two replicate filters were counted. Cell volumes were determined using a stage micrometer and converted to biomass using a conversion factor of 3 x 10^-13 g C /µm³ (Børsheim, K. Y., Bratbak, G., and Heldal, M. (1990). Enumeration and biomass estimation of planktonic bacteria and viruses by transmission electron microscopy. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 56, 352-356).