Coexistence of microalgal sedimentation and water column recycling in a seasonally ice-covered ecosystem (Saroma-ko Lagoon, Sea of Okhotsk, Japan)

Seasonal variations in under-ice microalgal sedimentation and plankton dynamics in Saroma-ko, a shallow seasonally ice-covered lagoon (Sea of Okhotsk, Hokkaido, Japan), were followed during a 4-week period at the end of winter. At 3–4 day intervals, sediment traps were deployed at three depths from the undersurface of the ice and water column samples were collected. Sampled variables included chlorophyll a (chl a) and pheopigments, particulate organic carbon and nitrogen (POC, PON), cell identification and enumeration, biogenic silica and dissolved inorganic nutrients. POC/PON, POC/chl a and Si/chl a ratios for suspended biomass as well as cell counts showed the presence of a diversified phytoplankton assemblage with a high microheterotrophic biomass. A major peak in algal sedimentation occurred at the end of the sampling season (chl a flux ca. 5 mg m−2 d−1); the sedimented algae included both ice algae and phytoplankton species. Ice algae did not remain suspended in the plankton biomass, but sedimented rapidly upon release from the ice matrix. Results show that Saroma-ko had a rather special food web structure at the end of winter, when both high microalgal export and water column recycling simultaneously occurred under the ice cover.