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A new source of dimethylsulfide (DMS) for the arctic atmosphere: ice diatoms

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Abstract

We report the first evidence that pennate diatoms growing within the bottom layer of first-year ice in the Arctic produce significant amounts of particulate dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSPp) and dissolved DMSP+DMS. In 1992 in Resolute Passage, a tributary of Barrow Strait, DMSPp concentrations within the bottom layer of ice reached 1055 mg S m-3 at the end of the vernal bloom, a value one order of magnitude higher than the maximum value reported in antarctic ice. Bottom-ice concentrations in DMSPp and DMSPd+DMS were significantly correlated with the abundance of the dominant pennate diatom Nitzschia frigida. Intracellular concentration in DMSP of ice algae was very low (0.001 pg cell-1) at the end of April when algae were light-limited and reached 1.17 pg cell-1 in mid-May following an increase in light and algal growth. We calculate that the rapid release of the dissolved DMSP+DMS from the ice into surface waters following the ice break-up will generate a sea-to-air DMS flux of 0.7 mg S m-2 d-1, a pulse ten times higher than the mean arctic summer flux. We estimate that this 1-d pulse represents up to 5% of the annual DMS emission in the Arctic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Maurice-Lamontagne, Ministère des Pêches et des Océans, C.P. 1000, G5H 3Z4, Mont-Joli, Québec, Canada

    M. Levasseur & S. Michaud

  2. Département d'océanographie, Université du Québec à Rimouski, 300, Allée des Ursulines, G5L 3A1, Rimouski, Québec, Canada

    M. Gosselin

Authors
  1. M. Levasseur
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  2. M. Gosselin
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  3. S. Michaud
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Communicated by R. J. Thompson, St. John's

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Levasseur, M., Gosselin, M. & Michaud, S. A new source of dimethylsulfide (DMS) for the arctic atmosphere: ice diatoms. Marine Biology 121, 381–387 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00346748

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00346748

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